Fosun’s luxury fashion house Lanvin merges with SPAC backed by Beijing’s Primavera Capital as it eyes New York listing
- Owner of Italian shoemaker Sergio Rossi and Austrian lingerie maker Wolford agrees to merge with blank-cheque company ahead of a US listing
- The deal, which values the business at US$1.5 billion, will raise funds for Lanvin to expand and open new shops
Lanvin Group, controlled by Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, has agreed to merge with a US blank-cheque company backed by private equity firm Primavera Capital, valuing the French luxury fashion house at US$1.5 billion.
The merger paves the way for Lanvin to list its shares in New York more than three years after Fosun took control of the company, giving it a platform to raise capital to fund future expansion.
Lanvin said it will use the proceeds for future acquisitions, and hopes to open more than 200 new shops by 2025.
SPACs are shell companies created to raise financial war chests through a share sale to investors, using the proceeds to buy assets within a limited period of time.
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The proceeds for Lanvin Group will include about US$130 million of investment capital from several existing shareholders including Fosun International, Japanese conglomerate Itochu and Hong Kong-listed shoe maker Stella International.
“We plan to accelerate the growth of our portfolio via both organic development and acquisitions, building a global portfolio of luxury fashion brands that appeal to a broad customer base,” said Lanvin’s chief executive Joann Cheng in a statement on Wednesday.
Lanvin expects to reach profitability by 2024, and triple its revenue to €989 million (US$1.08 billion) by 2025 from €323 million in 2021, said David Chan, co-chief operating officer of Lanvin at a press briefing late on Wednesday.
“We expect to double our sales from China, to 28 per cent of the group’s total revenue by 2025,” he said. Revenue from China totalled about €46 million last year.
All Lanvin’s existing shareholders will roll their shares into the newly-listed company. They will hold 65 per cent of the listed company between them, according to the statement.
After buying into Lanvin, the Shanghai-based conglomerate rebranded its own Fosun Fashion Group into Lanvin Group in 2021, while it introduced new strategic investors Itochu and Stella International in a private funding round that valued Lanvin at US$1 billion.
The rebranding was intended to elevate the image of Fosun Fashion onto the international stage. Lanvin, which operates in over 80 countries with 1,200 points of sales, 300 stores and 3,600 employees, also owns American women’s fashion brand St John Knits, and Italian men’s brand Caruso.
Sales from China accounted for 14 per cent of its 2021 revenue, while North America contributed a third. Europe, Africa and the Middle East accounted for about half of total sales.
The deal is still pending shareholders’ approval. If successful, it expects to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “LANV” by the third quarter of this year. It will use the proceeds on future acquisitions, and Lanvin expects to open over 200 new stores by 2025.
The SPAC’s management team comprises Fred Hu, founding chairman of Primavera Capital, and partner Max Chen, who is the chairman and chief executive of the SPAC. Citigroup and Credit Suisse are joint advisers to the blank-cheque company, while Cantor Fitzgerald is the sole financial advisor to Lanvin.
“If done with the right partner and structured properly, SPAC can be a very bespoke and streamlined way for [good quality] companies to go public,” said Chen.
