The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Investors have long seen fashion as a risk. But while the sector benefited from increased interest from both brands and investors in the early days of the pandemic, now, that wariness has returned.
Rising inflation, the crisis in Ukraine and a slowdown in consumer spending has left many brands searching a small crowd for new backers. In the first quarter of 2022, total transaction value in the global M&A market dropped to $725 billion, nearly 23 percent lower than the previous quarter, according to research firm Global Data.
“I think we are entering a new world,” said Elsa Berry, managing director and founder of Vendome Global Partners. “All the rules we know about are no longer there.”
On the latest edition of BoF LIVE, Gary Wassner, chief executive of Hilldun Corp.; Elsa Berry, managing director and founder, Vendome Global Partners; and Pierre Mallevays, Stanhope Capital’s co-head of merchant banking join BoF chief correspondent Lauren Sherman to discuss the fluctuating appetite for fashion acquisitions and how inflation and consumer spending will affect the current climate.
For fashion’s private market investors, deal-making may provide less-than-ideal returns and raise questions about the long-term value creation opportunities across parts of the fashion industry, reports The State of Fashion 2024.
A blockbuster public listing should clear the way for other brands to try their luck. That, plus LVMH results and what else to watch for in the coming week.
L Catterton, the private-equity firm with close ties to LVMH and Bernard Arnault that’s preparing to take Birkenstock public, has become an investment giant in the consumer-goods space, with stakes in companies selling everything from fashion to pet food to tacos.
Any fashion company that is contemplating going public needs to have not only the product and brand fundamentals right but also a business strategy that can easily be understood by the markets, writes Imran Amed.