MILAN — Giorgio Armani and his sister Rosanna have bought the 22 percent stake in Simint SpA that had been held by Milan financier and Simint chairman Francesco Micheli. The Armanis bought the stock for about $20 million (34 billion lire at current exchange rates).
With the deal, the Armani interests represent the single largest shareholding in the Modena-based sportswear group, which operates the A/X Armani Exchange business in the U.S.
The designer’s company, Giorgio Armani SpA, now will have 22.5 percent of Simint, while Rosanna Armani individually has a 17 percent stake, giving the Armanis overall control of 39.5 percent of Simint’s ordinary shares. Before the acquisition, the designer’s company had about 18 percent, while his sister had no stake in Simint.
An additional 10 percent of Simint is owned by Italian investment bank Sige, while the remaining outstanding shares are quoted on the Milan stock market. (The percentage figures here are the latest reported by Simint and differ somewhat from percentages reported earlier.)
An Armani spokeswoman said the designer will participate in the underwriting of a planned $27.8 million (47 billion lire) convertible bond issue.
The development comes after Simint reported Tuesday that its consolidated loss for the six months ended Oct. 31 was more than $7.6 million (12.9 billion lire), due to the A/X Armani Exchange retail operation. The A/X business is run by Simint’s U.S. subsidiary, which lost about $8.2 million in the half.
The spokeswoman declined to say what impact the shift in shareholdings will have on the plans disclosed Tuesday by Simint to seek a U.S. partner for A/X Armani Exchange.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Micheli said: “It was my decision to sell. The company badly needed to be recapitalized, and I didn’t want to invest any more.”
Reportedly, Simint SpA is heavily indebted to the tune of $142 million (240 billion lire), of which half represents debts of Simint USA for the A/X Armani exchange operation.
Micheli said he planned to resign as Simint chairman but not before the end of this month or later, at the next meeting of shareholders, which is still to be set.