LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-backed L Capital Asia and L Capital Management have signed an agreement with Vicini Spa, which owns the Giuseppe Zanotti Design brand, to acquire a 30 percent stake in the Italian luxury footwear company.
According to the Vicini company, the partnership with L Capital will help boost its growth on the international markets.
“During these last 20 years, our company has been constantly growing, always keeping major focus on strategic investments for production and creativity. We invested in building a retail network and a selected distribution worldwide via our direct show rooms and loyal and professional partners. We also invested on communication, working with stylists and international celebrities,” said Vicini creative director Giuseppe Zanotti. “In this moment, strengthening our company with such a global partner represents an additional investment. It will allow us to get better structured, reinforcing our penetration into the international markets, and keep growing. It is a great new project which make us really proud and optimistic for the future.”
Vicini, which operates 85 flagships worldwide, closed the fiscal year ended last October posting revenues of 110 million euros, or $150.7 million at average exchange rate.
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Vincini put itself on the auction block early this month after hiring Rothschild to explore strategic options ahead of a potential sale.
The company is touted to have a price tag of up to 300 million euros, or $412 million, at current exchange rates.
LVMH has been vocal in its ambitions to expand in the women’s footwear category and has forged several strategic partnerships in 2013, including the $2.56 billion majority stake it took in Italian cashmere brand Loro Piana in July.
Companies like VF Corp., Wolverine World Wide, Kering, and LVMH—which snapped up Nicholas Kirkwood this year — are expected to be active players in the mergers and acquisitions space next year as they continue to take strategic stakes in high-quality companies and expand their stables of brands.
