Valentino label sold for £476m

Luxury Italian fashion house Valentino is being sold to an unidentified sovereign wealth fund for €600m (£476m).

BY Helia Ebrahimi | 09 July 2012

Valentino haute couture autumn/winter 2012 Photo: Vladimir Potop

The sale comes five years after Valentino was bought by London-based private equity firm, Permira, at the height of the credit bubble together with Hugo Boss, in a holding company called Red & Black.

The fashion house had a tumultuous five years but has once again become widely praised in fashion circles, winning acclaim for shows at Paris Haute Couture Week and its ready-to-wear collections. It is a staple of the Oscars and is worn by stars Florence Welch, Alexa Chung and Keira Knightley.

READ: Why Valentino is the game changer of couture

The current deal, which will separate the Valentino brand from Hugo Boss, will see the design house sold to one of Permira's investors. The sovereign wealth fund has not been identified.

In 2011, Valentino had sales of €322.4m, up 20 per cent from the previous year and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of €22.2m, up 300 per cent on the previous year.

IN PICTURES: See the Valentino autumn/winter 2012 haute couture show

The company is thought to trade on a multiple similar to that of other luxury goods houses, which can sometimes be valued as high as 30 times earnings. The high ticket price Permira has achieved is expected to please investors, just as the buy-out group works on raising a new €6bn fund.

However, Valentino has not always been so easy to manage for the London-based buy-out group. Bought in 2007, the €3.4bn investment soon faced problems, from the aftermath of its founder Valentino Garavani's departure to the sustainability of the €2.3bn of debt attached to the deal.

The chief executive, Stefano Sassi, brought in designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, who together have rekindled a Valentino renaissance. Mr Sassi has also been working on pushing the brand into Asia.

Paris Haute Couture: Valentino autumn/winter 2012

Valentino brought the shows to a close yesterday with a lesson in minimalism and craftmanship, the couture way.

BY Lisa Armstrong | 05 July 2012

Photo: Getty

It's not too fanciful to suggest that couture's new delicate touch began with Valentino's regime change four years ago. Yes, before Armani eased up for his Privé collection this season, before even the sainted Raf Simons introduced restraint and reality to Dior with his first show since he was appointed as John Galliano's successor (to the most rapturous reviews since Jesus walked on water), Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli were rustling up big statements out of thin air - or at least out of whisper-weight clouds of chiffon and lace that seemed filled with air.

IN PICTURES: Valentino Haute Couture autumn/winter 2012

Talk about a light hand on the tiller. Ever since they were put in charge at Valentino in 2008, the duo has produced a master class in understated craftsmanship each season. And it just gets more assured with every collection. It's all the more remarkable for being the product of two minds with distinct creative outlooks. Staying true to the essence of these old brands while moving them forward isn't easy.

READ: NYC Ballet to celebrate Valentino

Who would have looked to Valentino, whose die hard customers once numbered Joan Collins and most of Texas's social xx-rays, for minimalism? Yet minimalism is what Grazia Chiuri and Piccioli achieved yesterday, and without betraying an ounce of Valentino's sweet femininity. The core inspiration, appropriately enough, was Madonna blue - not the Madonna who flips a nipple at Turkey. The other one, who is probably the proto feminine minimalist. Midnight blue silk chiffon, round-necked dresses with softly pleated skirts or panels of sheer Chantilly lace floated past, followed by fuller - but never stiffer - satin dresses that might have looked severe in other hands, but here looked demure and elegant. Having made their point - they can do plain proud - they moved into embellishment: Powder puff-pink embroidered satin coats or capes over ruffled chiffon columns, lemon-yellow brocaded trouser suits and square-toed ballerinas with low heels were unashamedly lovely, with no need to resort to the constricting boning and exaggerated construction that had been couture's hallmark for the past ten years or more.

So now that they've re-invented eveningwear, pulling it back from the plunge-fronted, crystal-infested clichés of the red-carpet, we just need them to tackle daywear.