Piazza Sempione for sale

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Oct 22, 2012

Piazza Sempione is on the verge of changing hands. The Italian upscale ready-to-wear brand has been controlled by majority shareholder L Capital since 2006, an investment company primarily funded by LVMH. The company's management and the founding family, the Montis, retain the rest of ownership. Financial problems have buffeted Piazza Sempione since last year, prompting it to meet with various investors these past months in search of a new partner.

"We are in a very advanced stage of negotiations to sell the assets of the company through a deal that is still being worked out," the Milan company's CEO Enrico Morra told Fashionmag.com. He said that "the transaction should be finalized in the next few days." According to the local Italian press, three investment funds figure among the potential buyers — Italian companies Consilium and Opera and the German fund BluO.

In this sensitive phase, the brand has asked the court of Milan to start an arrangement with creditors "in order to conduct discussions in a secure environment to both protect the company's assets and its employees as well as creditors" said the CEO. This procedure essentially lets the company continue to operate normally and conduct business.

Piazza Sempione is expected to reach a turnover of between 40 and 45 million euros in 2012, mainly from sales outside Italy, especially in the United States. "Sales for the winter season went very well and the market is meeting our expectations for the spring/summer," said Enrico Morra. Piazza Sempione is expected to reach a turnover of between 40 and 45 million euros in 2012, mainly from sales outside Italy, especially in the United States. "Sales for the winter season went very well and the market is meeting our expectations for the spring/summer," said Enrico Morra.

The luxury brand is present in nearly 600 multibrand outlets and has developed a network of single-brand boutiques, especially outside Italy. At home, the brand has a store in Rome and opened a shop-in-shop last July in the La Rinascente department store in Milan. It also has five stores in the United States, one in Moscow, one in Taipei (Taiwan), three in China and a planned opening in Kuwait City for November.