MILAN — The year 2024 closed with several Italian companies changing skin, restructuring, evaluating options ranging from a sale to a public listing, and forging new partnerships, setting their ducks in a row for 2025.
Moschino parent Aeffe sold its beauty business to its longtime licensee Euroitalia for 98 million euros, which helped boost the group’s profitability as sales in the first nine months of 2024 fell 17.8 percent to 207.8 million euros, impacted by the slowdown in the luxury industry and by challenges in its wholesale distribution. In September, after unveiling her spring 2025 collection, designer Alberta Ferretti revealed she was exiting the namesake brand she launched in 1981, also controlled by Aeffe. Pointing to additional changes, Aeffe at the time issued a statement saying that the company “will proceed with a careful and in-depth analysis of the roles and functions of the various departments with the aim of internally reorganizing its human resources in order to guarantee even greater efficiency.”
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In October, Aeffe promoted Lorenzo Serafini to succeed Ferretti at the helm of the brand and his first collection will be presented in February. He joined the group in 2014 to design the Philosophy label, which will be integrated into the Alberta Ferretti line from the fall 2025 season. Also in November the group appointed its first general manager, Alexandra Lamprecht, who has experience at luxury brands ranging from Ferragamo and Valentino to Etro.
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Etro itself is potentially entering a new phase as Rothschild has been given a mandate to seek an investor in the Italian company, according to sources. Private equity giant L Catterton acquired a majority stake in Etro in July 2021 and, fueled by the approach of its four-year investment term, speculation about a potential exit has been rife.
Rothschild is putting feelers out, but it is still not clear what kind of deal either L Catterton or the Etro family is looking for, whether a full exit or the sale of a stake.
The future of Versace is also uncertain, as its parent Capri Holdings is said to be working with Barclays to sell the Italian luxury brand and Jimmy Choo as it focuses in on the Michael Kors turnaround. This development comes on the heels of the failed $8.5 billion buyout by Tapestry Inc., which was dropped following an antitrust challenge from the U.S. government.
Versace has been hit by softening luxury demand and the slowdown in China, reporting a 22.1 percent decline in first-half revenues to $420 million. Kering was previously said to be interested in buying Versace, but no deal ever came to fruition and observers wonder if the French group could still be keen to acquire the Milan-based brand since it is busy with its own turnaround of Gucci.
On top of that, sources in Milan are speculating about the future of chief creative officer Donatella Versace in 2025, as her contract is said to be up in February.
Remo Ruffini, on the other hand, has found a new partner in Bernard Arnault’s LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. In September, the Italian entrepreneur, chairman and chief executive officer of Moncler Group forged a deal with LVMH that will help him strengthen his position as Moncler’s largest shareholder. The Moncler brand continues to grow, and Ruffini told WWD ahead of the Moncler Genius iteration in Shanghai last fall that he had even bigger plans for that label. He also continues to develop Moncler Grenoble and heighten its visibility, planning yet another brand experience on March 15 in a still undisclosed location.
L Catterton, backed by LVMH, also helped Tod’s Group chairman Diego Della Valle delist the company in 2024. Della Valle has long expressed his belief that the company was undervalued by the stock market and he wanted to have more flexibility and freedom to further develop each brand without the quarterly scrutiny of investors. This will be the first year that will allow him to pursue that strategy.
In a first major step after taking the company private, Della Valle named former Chanel Inc. president and chief operating officer John Galantic CEO of the group, which controls the Tod’s brand as well as Roger Vivier, Hogan and Fay.
The year will also see whether Golden Goose will go public. After reporting that revenues in the nine months ended Sept. 30 rose 12 percent to 466 million euros, asked for an update on the pending IPO, which was expected to take place in June and was delayed at the 11th hour due to European market volatility, CEO Silvio Campara said “the process never finished for us, we continue to create value aligned with our investors, and when there will be the right market conditions, it will be an option that we will consider.” In 2020, the company was acquired by private equity fund Permira from the Carlyle Europe buyout fund.
K-Way is gearing up for 2025 as well, as it will celebrate its 60th anniversary, and following an investment revealed in October by Permira Growth Opportunities II. The fund is taking a 40 percent stake in the French premium outerwear brand from BasicNet, led by the Boglione family, in a deal that values the company at more than half a billion euros.
Permira is expected to support K-Way’s growth across its channels, with a particular emphasis on direct-to-consumer avenues, opening new stores, expanding its product range, reinforcing the brand’s leadership in France and Italy, but also to grow internationally.
Eyes are also on the future of New Guards Group, which in November, after losing the license to distribute Reebok footwear and apparel in Europe, filed for Chapter 11-style proceedings in Italy. NGG, the Farfetch division that’s home to a host of brands and the licensee of Off-White, will undergo a restructuring and debt management process under Italian bankruptcy law, offering time and space to restructure.
As reported, Authentic Brands Group terminated NGG’s Reebok license for Europe and it is understood that NGG owes ABG royalty payments of around $300 million.
NGG, a division of Farfetch, is the owner of brands including Marcelo Burlon County of Milan, Palm Angels, Unravel Project, Heron Preston, Alanui, Peggy Gou, Ambush and There Was One. NGG still holds the license for Off-White, the late Virgil Abloh’s brand that was purchased by New York-based Bluestar Alliance LLC earlier this year.