Lars Windhorst (right) joined the luxury lingerie brand La Perla in 2018 – the label’s employees recently protested in Italy. They fear for their jobs. picture alliance / Sipa USA | Global Media Group / Capital Pictures | Rick Gold / SZ Photo | Friedrich Bungert / Keith Mayhew/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images/Graphics: BI/Dominik Schmitt
The controversial financial investor Lars Windhorst decorated his portfolio with the Italian luxury lingerie brand La Perla.
Due to tax debts running into millions, the High Court in London ordered the compulsory liquidation of La Perla’s parent company. The company also ran into difficulties in Italy.
Research by Business Insider shows how an Italian court is taking on the English liquidators. A judge from Bologna had, among other things, the company’s trademark rights confiscated.
La Perla is an icon of Italian fashion. The corset maker Ada Masotti created a luxury brand 70 years ago, which today belongs to the corporate empire of the dazzling financial investor Lars Windhorst. Superstars like Madonna, Beyonce and Victoria Beckham gave the elegant lingerie from Bologna a lot of shine. A hand-embroidered bra from the current collection can easily cost 450 euros. Nevertheless, the label has been struggling with financial problems for years, the workforce has shrunk and sales have halved. Now La Perla is finally in danger of being sold out.
That would be the next setback for Windhorst, the former “prodigy of the German economy”. The financial juggler has decorated the portfolio of his investment company Tennor in recent years with names such as La Perla and Hertha BSC. After his unsuccessful foray into football, Windhorst could now also fail in the glittering world of fashion. Tennor provided the Italians with a credit line of 450 million euros for the prestigious investment, as business documents show.
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However, just five years after Windhorst took over, employees, unions and politicians accused him of driving the company into the wall. They demonize the German investor as a speculator. Vincenzo Colla, regional councilor for economic development in the Emilia-Romagna region, spoke of “Financial piracy„.