Blackstone wins beauty parade to land a 20pc stake in Versace
ITALIAN fashion houses and Wall Street buyout firms are not obvious bedfellows – unless they happen to be Versace and Blackstone.
The suave Italian fashion outfit, founded by the late Gianni Versace who was murdered in 1997, yesterday said it had picked Blackstone to take a 20 per cent stake in the company in return for €60m (£49m) of equity.
Blackstone, which beat off hot competition to land the firm, will also inject €150m into the business. It values Versace, which is set to report annual revenues of €480m at the end of March, at €1bn. The fashion house said it wants to float within the next three to five years.
The two businesses, led by Donatella Versace from Versace and Blackstone founder Steve Schwarzman, were full of praise for each other yesterday after the deal.
“I am very pleased to work with Blackstone and, in particular, with Stephen Schwarzman, whom I admire for his achievements and who shares the family’s vision for the development of Versace,” Versace said, while Schwarzman called Versace a “true icon”.