Sales and investment speculation increases in intensity as the media ponders the futures of brands like Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry, Jimmy Choo & Prada
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The Latest Investments, Diageo, Rothschild & Gilt Groupe
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Credit: This is the featured image credit
Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
Sales and investment speculation increases in intensity as the media ponders the futures of brands like Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry, Jimmy Choo & Prada
Sales and investment speculation increases in intensity as the media ponders the futures of brands like Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry, Jimmy Choo and Prada.
Medill suggests that it is the growing demand for luxury goods in emerging markets has many luxury brands turning to the equity market to fund retail expansion. But one only has to glance at recently released Quarter 1 results to see why luxury brands suddenly look so attractive.
LVMH reported revenue growth of 17%, whilst PPR’s luxury division soared to the tune of 26%. Richemont are yet to share details of this year’s earnings but if the recent success of the timepiece industry is anything to go by, their stable of haute horlogerie, fashion and online retail brands are sure to be enjoying the same scale of success. As the word’s appetite for luxury brands attracts the attention of the finance world, Luxury Society presents our monthly wrap up of investments within the industry.
Launch: J Rothschild Creat Partners
Financier Jacob Rothschild launched a $750 million private equity fund to help Chinese investors to take part in international deals. For the first time, the fund allows Chinese investors the chance to invest in overseas companies via an overseas private equity structure.
“This unique venture will allow China’s private sector to invest in Western companies, whilst providing opportunities for Western companies to enter China’s rapidly growing and vibrant economy,” said Rothshchild.
Source: Reuters
Speculation, Softbank, Gilt Groupe
Japan’s third-largest wireless carrier, Softbank Corp, is rumoured to be close to an investment in Gilt Groupe Inc. to help it create a joint venture in Asia. The deal is said to value the members-only online retailer at about $1 billion, where Softbank would provide approximately $15 million as one of several investors in a funding round of over $100 million.
Source: Bloomberg
Sold: Robert Clergerie, Fung Capital
Recently Fung Capital teamed up with Jean-Marc Loubier, former head of Escada, to buy French shoemaker Robert Clergerie. The private equity group are also currently rumoured to be involved in the sales negotiations of Hermès’ 45% stake in the cosmetics and fragrances group Jean-Paul Gaultier, in competition with Puig and Richemont. In December 2010, Trinity, the distribution arm of parent company Li & Fung, bought Italian brand Cerruti for 53 million euros.
Source: WWD
Speculation, Diageo, Bain Capital
Spirits juggernaut Diageo is said to be teaming up with U.S. buyout firm Bain Capital for a possible joint bid for Stock Spirits Group, maker of the Polish vodka Czysta de Luxe. The Sunday Times speculated that Diageo could spend up to 500 million pounds to buy the distilling and distribution company owned by Oaktree Capital Management LLC.
Source: Bloomberg
Investment, KupiVIP
European and US venture-capital funds has made a $55m investment in KupiVIP, a Russian online shopping club, in what they claim is the largest such transaction in the region’s e-commerce market. The site, launched in October 2008, offers ‘flash sales’ of heavily discounted high street and luxury goods, including Dolce & Gabbana and Tsum.
h4. Source: Financial Times
Speculation, Jimmy Choo, IPO
The latest speculation in the on-going sale of Jimmy Choo, is that the firm is now considering an initial public offering in Hong Kong, valuing the company at US $1.1 billion. It is believed that HSBC Holdings Plc proposed the IPO to Jimmy Choo’s owner TowerBrook Capital Partners LP and the buyout firm is taking the plan “seriously”. However it was also rumoured that Labelux Group, owner of Switzerland’s Bally International AG, teamed up with private-equity firm Investcorp Bank BSC to bid for British accessories house.
Creative Strategist, Digital
Sophie Doran is currently Senior Creative Strategist, Digital at Karla Otto. Prior to this role, she was the Paris-based editor-in-chief of Luxury Society. Prior to joining Luxury Society, Sophie completed her MBA in Melbourne, Australia, with a focus on luxury brand dynamics and leadership, whilst simultaneously working in management roles for several luxury retailers.
