The last deals of the year, just before the clock measures the new 2019 year, tell us that an unprecedented number of fashion houses and brands have changed their owners. At the beginning of the last week of the outgoing 2018 year, it became known about the closed sale to Italian investors of the oldest luxury House TRUSSARDI. And the week ends with the sale of the Swedish brand Acne Studios to the Hong Kong company I.T Group. The value of the transaction is 500 million euros, the sale was mediated by financiers from Goldman Sachs.



It also became known that for this transaction I.T Group attracted Chinese IDG Capital, ready to buy European brands. The goal of both investment companies is to have a broader view in Pacific region for Asian clients of Scandinavian labels with a good history and reputation. By the way, I.T Group has been a retail partner of the Swedish brand since the early 2000s, and IDG played a fundamental role in expanding the positions of Farfetch and Moncler in China and Asia in general. However, the Swedes did not sell the entire company, retaining part of the shares: executive chairman Mikael Schiller and co-founder of the brand director Johnny Johansson Jonny Johansson will remain the main shareholders of Acne Studios.

The sale of shares of many labels has been extremely active this past year: Dries Van Noten sold a controlling stake in his company in the summer, Zegna in August acquired 85% of Tom Brown's shares, and The house of Versace devoured Capri Holdings (previously the group was called Michael Kors Group, also owned by Hong Kong company Sportswear Holdings). It should be noted that the almost feverish buying up of shares of American and European brands by Asian investment groups is already leading to a soft replacement of the owners of the most iconic Houses in the fashion industry with new "insanely rich Asians". At the same time, it is impossible to imagine the reverse situation of buying, for example, a Chinese brand by Swedes or Italians, according to the laws of PRC, without a Chinese representative in your business.

Photo: ACNE Studios