Blue Skye has entered into an agreement to buy a majority stake in Fashioneast sarl, owner of the renowned London‐based fashion label John Richmond, since December 2015. With designer John Richmnond himself having a stake in Fashioneast (see here the press release).
All the deal has been arranged by an Italian direction as Blue Skye is a London-based private equity firm founded in 2004 by Salvatore Cerchione and Gianluca D’Avanzo, who were advised for this deal by Capolino‐Perlingieri & Leone law form as for the legal issues and by Mediobanca as the financial issues. John Richemond’s advisor is instead Prima Merchant & Partners, a merchant bank do-fiunded by Giuseppe De Lorenzo.
Today Blue Skye has an investment portfolio of over 1.2 billion euros. Key transactions include acquisition and management control of Arcotronics (now Kemet), the world’s second largest manufacturer of film capacitors, Sirti, an Italian leading technology company, and one of the largest in Europe, in the design and production of network infrastructures and telecoms system integration, Gruppo Cipriani, a global company operating in the upscale restaurant, event and leisure industry and Hotel Bauer, a luxury and prestigious five star hotel in the heart of Venice (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
Prior to the acquisition by Fashioneast in 2014, John Richmond’s brand (together with the other brands Richmond X, Richmond Denim, Richmond, Richmond Junior and JR) was ownership of Akkurate Ltd, which in turn was controlled by the Italian entrepreneur Saverio Moschillo (50%), by the stylist John Richmond (35%) and by Toni Yusuf (15%). Akkurate was then liquidated and Fashioneast bought the brands during the liquidation process.
The designer clothes John Richmond had been produced and distributed by Falber, the Italian company owned by Saverio Moschillo, who started a legal war against his former partner just after Fashoneasthad announced the acquisition of the Richmond brands.
The was just finished last September when Mr. Richmond published a press release telling that “with a compliance order dated 21st September 2016, the Milan Court has rejected the appeal by Mr Saverio Moschillo, Moschillo Llc, Biver Llc and Gioia Milano Llc, and confirmed the first court order of 20th June 2016, forbidding Mr Moschillo and the companies listed above to use in any way whatsoever the brand, denomination, domain name and shop sign consisting of or including the name ‘John Richmond’ or ‘Richmond’ in relation to any product or service, on the entire territory of the European Union”.
