The Boccaccio fund managed by Savills Investment Management sgr has sold the high street retail portion of the building in via Verri 6 in Milan, which has been housing for 30 years the flagship store of Jil Sander, a well-known luxury brand with a minimalist and owned imprint which OTB Group (Only The Brave) bought last March (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
The buyer is Red Circle Investments srl, the investment vehicle of Renzo Rosso, founder of the iconic Diesel jeans brand and of the OTB Group itself, in turn owner of fashion brands such Maison Margiela, Marni, Viktor&Rolf, Amiri, beyond already quoted Diesel and Jil Sander, and companies specialized in developing licensed brands Staff International and Brave Kid. Savills was assisted in the transaction by CBRE (see the press release here).
The high street retail space that Savills sold covers a total area of approximately 640 square meters and is part of a prestigious six-storey mixed-use historic building. What makes the asset particularly attractive is its strategic location: it is located between Via Verri and Via San Pietro all’Orto, in the Fashion District, and enjoys excellent visibility thanks to its angular position and the presence of 11 large windows.
“This transaction is an important signal in this historical moment”, commented Silvia Gandellini, Head of Capital Markets CBRE Italy, who added: “Prestigious companies with a deep experience, such as the OTB group, are the first to bet on retail physical when it is in strategic locations, because they consider it essential and irreplaceable for the business “.
Red Circle is not new to investments on the real estate front, in fact it has in its portfolio: the Marni Group headquarters (see here a previous article by BeBeez), the Pelican hotel in Miami Beach, the Chiltern Firehouse in London and the Ancora hotel in Cortina (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
As for other kind of investments, last April Red Circle invested in Planet Farms, an Italian company active in vertical farming systems, which make it possible to obtain, in an innovative and sustainable way, vegetables with the best nutritional properties (see here a previous article by BeBeez). Also in April, Red Circle raised its stake to 7.5% in Masi Agricola, an Italian producer of fine wines famous for Amarone, listed on Aim Italia since 2015 (see here a previous article by BeBeez). Red Circle had already taken over 5% of the company in May 2020 (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
In the Red Circle portfolio there are also holdings in: U-Booker (a company that has developed a web platform dedicated to fashion professionals, where customers can choose from a wide selection of models and professional models and, in turn, models and models can introduce themselves), Retrosuperfuture (an avant-garde Italian company active in the fashion and eyewear sector); Cortilia (FoodTech scaleup that delivers fresh home food products). The Rosso family company had also invested in Yoox and is still one of the most important shareholders after the merger with Net-à-porter, which led to the birth of YNAP.
Red Circle had partly financed the recent shopping by selling its 14% stake in EcorNaturaSì in August 2020 (see here a previous article by BeBeez). At the same time, the holding company had also left the capital of the Italian innovation platform H-Farm (see here a previous article by BeBeez). Finally, last June Red Circle also sold its stake in Depop (the mobile application used by fans of online fashion and accessories purchases and sales) as Nasdaq-listed marketplace Eatsy acquired 100% of the company (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
