Valentino Growth Further Slowed Down Or Sold To Gucci

The Mayhoola for Investments SPC of Qatar's Royal Investment Fund, which is considering the withdrawal from the fashion luxury industry, is becoming more and more popular. Meanwhile, Valentino Valentino, one of its investment portfolios, has further slowed down its growth.

In 2018, the Italy luxury brand realized 1 billion 200 million euros in revenue, a year-on-year increase in low single digit figures, and its revenue rose 5% to 1 billion 160 million euros in 2017, excluding 7% after the exchange rate.

Speaking at the local luxury industry summit in Milan recently, CEO Stefano Sassi stressed that even if the growth rate was slower than before, "we continued to grow", and the performance of all markets in the first quarter of this year was positive.

The trend of rising market demand in mainland China is also reflected in Valentino Valentino, and Stefano Sassi has revealed that Hongkong and Macao have slowed as Chinese customers increase local consumption.

He pointed out that menswear leisure, quick response to shorter and shorter trend cycle, increasing customer viscosity in the declining trend of brand loyalty and continuous improvement of digital channel's ability to communicate are all ways to promote Valentino Valentino's growth and apply to all luxury industry participants.

Among them, maintaining visibility is the key to the survival of independent brands in the financial and network gap of large luxury goods groups such as LVMH SE (LVMH.PA) road, Kering SA (KER.PA), and so on. This requires huge communication investment. Valentino's core profit EBITDA in 2017 dropped 7.7% to 190 million euros.

The brand has yet to officially announce its full performance in 2018.

Stefano Sassi declined to comment on rumors of a change in ownership structure and said it was a decision of Mayhoola for Investments SPC.

Stefano Sassi last year has shown that IPO is out of priority.

Mayhoola for Investments SPC bought Valentino Valentino for 700 million euros in 2012. After four years, it invested 500 million euros to buy Pierre Balmain SpA Balmain of Paris fashion house.

Last month, the company completed the sale of Anya Hindmarch Ltd., the UK's high-end leather designer brand, which may serve as the beginning of divestiture of luxury brand assets.

Jean-Marc Duplaix, chief financial officer of Kai Yun group, revealed at last week's performance meeting that the company has been looking for new targets in the market, "seize the opportunity at the right time", and the market thinks that Valentino Valentino may be a viable target.

Author: Lin Biying