US private equity giant Blackstone will buy a 20% stake of  Versace fashion brand. The deal was announced yesterday after a couple of months of exclusive negotiations between the the two counterparts  (download here the English press release). Blackstone beated offers by Investcorp e Ccpm last December.
Blackstone will inject 150 million euro of fresh capital into Gianni Versace spa and will acquire 60 million euro in Gianni Versace spa stock from GIVI Holding spa. The latter is the holding company of Gianni Versace spa and it is owned by Donatella Versace (20%), her brother Santo  (30%) and her daugheter Allegra  (50%).
On completion of the transaction, Blackstone will own 20 per cent of the fashion maison, implying a total enterprise value of 1 billion euro and it will have one seat on the company’s Board.
Versace will release its 2013 results at the end of March. The Company expects to announce revenues up approximately 18 per cent to nearly 480 million euro and ebitda up more than 50 per cent to at least 69 million euro. Advisors to Versace for the deal were Goldman Sachs and Banca Imi and Gattai Minoli & Partners law firm, while Lazard advised Blackstone.
