Chinese Investors Continue Hot Pursuit of European Brands
CHINA CLUB: The march of the big-ticket Chinese investor continues. Having just announced plans to buy Bally for an undisclosed price, Shandong Ruyi may have another European acquisition it its sights: Arcadia Group.
The Chinese textile giant that controls SMCP and Hong Kong’s Trinity Group is said to be eyeing Arcadia, parent of Topshop and Topman, according to a report in The Sunday Times of London.
The report said Shandong could buy all or part of Arcadia, which also owns high-street retailers such as Burton, Miss Selfridge and Evans. The sale of the Topshop and Topman properties could prove trickier as Leonard Green & Partners holds a 25 percent stake in those businesses. LGP purchased the stake in 2012 in a deal that valued the retailers at 2 billion pounds.
An Arcadia spokesman could not be reached for comment on Sunday, and industry sources have dismissed the report, which appeared in the paper’s business section. It would not be unusual for the aggressive Shandong to be looking at any number of Western companies, given its recent buying spree.
Earlier this month, it announced plans to buy Bally, and in November, it took a majority stake in Hong Kong’s Trinity Ltd., parent of brands including Hardy Amies, Gieves & Hawkes, Cerruti 1881, and Kent & Curwen. It also recently bought Aquascutum from the Chinese company YGM Trading.
In 2016, it added SMCP, parent of Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot, to its bulging portfolio and took the French fashion group public last October on the Paris stock market. Shandong is also a joint owner of The Carloway Mill in Scotland, one of the few remaining makers of Harris Tweed.
The Chinese giant isn’t the only one on the prowl for European brands. Fosun International is said to have already clinched a deal to buy Lanvin, after having nabbed a majority stake in the Italian tailor Caruso in November. It’s doing due diligence on the lingerie label La Perla.
Chinese e-commerce players are also moving quickly into Western markets: Richard Li, founder and chairman of Secoo, China’s largest luxury e-commerce platform, swept into London earlier this month looking for opportunities to expand Secoo in Europe, while VIP.com has just become an official London Fashion Week sponsor and plans to work with London-based brands throughout the year to help them enter the Chinese market.
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