That Italy’s iconic shoes manufactured Sergio Rossi might land on private equity firms’ desks was in the cards. Now word is that some private equity firms are making their due diligences on the company’s accounts already (see here il Sole 24 Ore).
Last February, presenting 2014 year accounts for Kering luxury giant, the group’s ceo François-Henri Pinault said that Kering might decide to sell Sergio Rossi. “We started a strategic revision of the Sergio Rossi brand in order to check the opportunity to keep it in our portfolio for the medium-long term” and “sale is an option”, Pinault said.
Actually Kering, who bought the Italian brand in 1999, put Sergio Rossi brand among assets ready for sale in the 2014 accounts (see here Kering’s FY 2014 statements) after having made a 52 million euro write-off of the brand.
Sergio Rossi’s revenues have been dropping year after year since 2004 when it reached 99 million euros in sales. In 2013 revenues were 92 million euros and in 2014 dropped to 83 millions together with a drop in ebitda.
In August 2013 there were rumor on the market already about a possibile sale of the brand. At that time possibile acquirors were said to be Qatar’s royal family (the same who had acquired Valentino) and Italian denim entrepreneur Renzo Rosso.
