Prada completes acquisition of Versace
The deal, which "has received all required regulatory approvals," is valued at about $1.45 billion.
Combination of the Prada and Versace logos. File image
(AFP) Italian fashion group Prada announced Tuesday having completed the acquisition of its competitor Versace, announced last April, for about 1.45 billion dollars.
Prada said in a statement that the deal with Capri Holdings, the U.S. group that owns Versace, "has received all required regulatory approvals."
Under the deal, Lorenzo Bertelli, designer Miuccia Prada's son and chief marketing officer, will become executive chairman of Versace.
Versace is coming off a few years of decline, unlike the Prada group, which boasts financial robustness and was buoyed by strong sales of its Miu Miu brand.
Prada CEO Andrea Guerra told reporters that Versace is an "incredibly complementary brand, being very different from our other brands.
According to him, Versace "invented fashion as we know it today", and "addresses a different aesthetic and a different consumer".
"The [Versace] brand is much bigger than its turnover, and we like difficult missions. So the goal is to try to bring the business back to the level of greatness of the brand," Bertelli, 37, said in a Bloomberg podcast broadcast in mid-November.
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