Chinese Buyers Enter The Final Competition For French Brand Sonia Rykiel To Compete For The Winner.

The bidding deadline for French fashion brand Sonia Rykiel (Sonia Rykiel) is on the verge of bankruptcy.

On the last bidding day (June 12th), the Paris court received 10 or so quotations, including investment institutions and investors from Europe, the Middle East and other Asian countries, including quotes from Chinese companies, but the court did not publish a specific list.

According to the latest news, there are only three of the most powerful bidders in Sonia Rykiel, and each of them hopes to get Sonia Rykiel assets through bankruptcy management procedures. The three bidders are Emmanuel Diemoz, the former chief executive of French luxury brand Balmain, a family and a Chinese company engaged in real estate and medicine in Paris.

It is reported that the court held a non-public hearing in the morning of July 1st, and the brand management and workers' Council attended and selected the three from 9 bidders. Some of the bidders were defeated because they were more interested in Sonia Rykiel, a well-known trademark, and had no intention of taking over their operation management. The French Etam (IgG) group, which originally expressed interest, did not submit relevant plans at last.

Emmanuel Diemoz, the former chief executive of French luxury brand Balmain, said it plans to focus on Sonia Rykiel core products, knitted products and ready-made garments, and reduce the retail network to three stores in France to achieve the restructuring and revitalization of the brand. His offer will be adjusted based on the rental of Boulevard Saint-Germain flagship store, and there are already suitable designers. He also wants to reduce the number of employees to 40.

Paris, a real estate and medical family business, said it plans to vigorously promote the digital transformation of the brand, and is also interested in the flagship store located in Boulevard Saint-Germain, but this store is not the most important part of its brand. It also plans to reduce the number of employees to around 40.

Because the Chinese investors who participated in the bidding had not acquired any French brand before, they were still in due diligence.

Finally, the Paris Commercial Court accepted the proposal of the participants to extend the final bid date to July 18th. The hearing is scheduled for July 25th, and the final result will be announced on the 7~10 day after the hearing.

In April 30th, Sonia Rykiel announced that it had applied for bankruptcy management procedures. The parent company First Heritage Brands (FHB) is looking for buyers to take over the brand. In order to get the brand back on track, FHB has taken many strategies, including relocating the main line brand Sonia Rykiel in October 2016, closing the sub line Sonia by Sonia Rykiel, and layoffs 1/4. The brand also closed stores in New York, London, Brussels and Luxemburg earlier this year after a high-level exchange transfusion.

Earlier reports showed that the Sonia Rykiel brand and its subsidiaries had 178 employees, of whom about 150 were working in the brand Paris headquarters, with only enough funds to maintain their operations until the end of June.

In May of this year, Sonia Rykiel shut down US subsidiaries and then closed stores in the United States and Britain. Up to now, Sonia Rykiel has 6 stores in France and Monaco, and has 200 retail outlets worldwide, totaling 130 employees.

In view of the continuous investment in Sonia Rykiel for many years and failure to reverse the continued decline in brand performance, FHB decided to stop the loss in time and launch the brand. In 2018, the brand sales amounted to only 35 million euros, less than half of 2011 (83 million 700 thousand euros) and a loss of 20 million euros.

As early as January this year, FHB has hired Compagnie Financi re Edmond de Rothschild (Rothschild) to find new investors or buyers for the brand. It is reported that since its acquisition in 2012, FHB has invested nearly 200 million euros in the Sonia Rykiel brand.

The Sonia Rykiel brand was founded in 1968 by the designer of the same name. It was also one of the few fashion brands that still operate independently in France. Brand official documents show that the company's sales in 2011 were 83 million 700 thousand euros, with a loss of 1 million 400 thousand euros. In 2012, the brand founder family sold 80% of the company's shares to Fung Brands, a brand investment company of Hongkong Lifeng group.

At the beginning of 2016, Fung Brands will increase its shareholding ratio to 100%, and then co founded FHB with LVMH group's former executive Jean-Marc Loubier and Singapore Investment Fund Temasek (Temasek). In August of that year, Sonia Rykiel, the founder of the brand, died after fighting with Parkinson for many years.