George Bennett of Vogue Business he is sure of it, so much so that he has titled his recent analysis “Why 2021 will be a bumper year for M&A”, or rather: because 2021 will be a fantastic year for mergers and acquisitions. Wwd, the American fashion and luxury newspaper, is more possiblist: “M&A Talk Swirls Around Kering, Richemont Following Blog Report”, a title that could be translated as: the rumors of mergers and acquisitions with protagonists the Kering and Richemont groups are multiplying after the rumors that appeared in an industry blog. Last but not least, there is the forecast of the very recent study PwC Deals Global and Italian M&A trends sul 2020, focused on the consumer sector, including fashion.
The comparison with 2019 and the trend for 2021
The PwC study shows that the calendar year of the pandemic, 2020, saw fashion M&A operations decrease in number, but increase more than speculating in value: in detail, the fund recorded a 17% decline in the volume of transactions globally, offset by a 19% increase in value compared to 2019, which reflects three Italian operations announced (and closed) after the start of the pandemic, Permira/Golden Goose, Moncler/Stone Island and the acquisition of the majority of the Australian brand Zimmermann by Style Capital Sgr. If we insert the three transactions only in the Italian context, they led to an increase of + 177% in value (compared to 2019) compared to a decrease of 51% in the number of transactions concluded. Also in 2020, at a global but also Italian level, underlines Emanuela Pettenò, partner of PwC Italia and Consumer & markets deals leader, the most attractive categories were clothing (especially casual), footwear (intended in particular as sneakers) and sportswear. In 2021 there has already been another important operation: the passage of Jil Sander to Otb, the holding company that Renzo Rosso has built around the Diesel brand.
Loading…
The Giorgio Armani “case”
Among the protagonists of the 2021 M&A scenario, some hypothesize there may be the Armani Group (in the photo above, the designer at the end of an Emporio Armani fashion show a few years ago). The rumors of a sale of minority or majority shares to a large group or of a sale to other important players in the sector have been chasing each other for years, also because the stylist-entrepreneur is still today, over the age of 80, CEO and president of the his group enIt does not seem to have heirs, neither as regards the creative direction nor for the top management roles of the company, which in 2020 had a turnover of 2.15 billion, among the highest of the Italian groups. Armani was not the only name at the center of financial rumors: there was talk (but it is certainly not the first time) of a possible sale of Etro, currently firmly controlled by the founding family, and even of Dolce & Gabbana to Kering. A rumor, this, immediately denied by the group founded by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, which could instead be interested in supply chain acquisitions, as suggested in a recent interview by Alfonso Dolce, CEO of the company.
The interview with Vogue America
The most recent episode is linked to an interview granted by Giorgio Armani to Jason Horowitz of Vogue America, entitled Giorgio Armani on Fashion’s Future—And Why He’s Not Slowing Down (Giorgio Armani talks about the future of fashion and why he has no intention of slowing down). A very interesting interview and accompanied by beautiful images of Annie Leibovitz. A “voice from the escaped sen” was enough, a sentence towards the end of the interview, to trigger new indiscretions. The offending passage is this, which we report in full in English, followed by the translation: “For years, Mr. Armani has insisted on his company’s independence, even as Gucci and Fendi and Pucci and other Italian luxury giants sold to the French conglomerates Kering and Lvmh. Mr. Armani, so much a symbol of Italy that he recently contributed furnishings to the Italian president’s palace, says that a French buyer is not in the cards. But, for the first time, he allows that the idea of Armani continuing as an independent company is “not so strictly necessary,” and says that “one could think of a liaison with an important Italian company”—and not necessarily a fashion company. He won’t divulge more“. That is: «For years Armani has reiterated the importance of the independence of his company, just as Gucci, Fendi and Pucci and other Italian luxury giants were being acquired by the French groups Kering and LVMH. Universally recognized as a symbol of Italy, Armani – who recently helped furnish the Quirinale – says the sale to a French group is out of the question. For the first time, however, he says that “it is not strictly necessary” to continue as an independent company and that “one could imagine a liaison (SIC) with another important Italian company”, not necessarily from the fashion world. But – concludes Jason Horowitz – Armani does not add anything else.
Only rumors, for now: the Armani group does not comment
On the part of the company and Giorgio Armani himself, there were no reactions to the publication of the interview nor to the speculations that followed it, especially in the Italian media. Among the names made for the future agreement (pardon, liaison) are those of L’Oreal (French cosmetics giant already at the center of similar rumors in 2016, before Armani created a foundation to control the group), Essilor (the holding company headed by Leonardo Del Vecchio, founder of Luxottica) and Exor, the financial company of the Agnelli family which in recent months has shown an evident interest in investing in the high range. The Chinese luxury brand Shing Xia (born thanks to a partnership with Hermès, but never took off) and 24% of the high-end footwear maison Christian Loboutin passed to Exor.