Italian luxury goods maker Salvatore Ferragamo has picked an adviser for its initial public offering (IPO), moving it closer to a sale aimed at raising funds for expansion, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Italian boutique advisory firm Caretti & Associati is working with the family-owned designer on a sale scheduled for the first half of next year, the sources said.
Milan-based Caretti advised Ferragamo on the sale of French couture house Emanuel Ungaro in 2005. No one was immediately available for comment at Ferragamo.
While Italy is world famous for fashion, the industry is still dominated by family-run companies and under-represented on the country's stock market.
That now looks set to change with founding designers and their kin coming under pressure from conglomerates PPR and LVMH in the competition to expand into China, Russia, India and the Middle East, from where the bulk of luxury goods sales are expected to come in the near future.
The pressure is sufficient that executives and dealmakers say although the global credit crunch has introduced some wariness the deal pipeline is still flowing -- albeit slowly.
Luca Solca, an analyst at Bernstein Research and a former Italian luxury industry executive, says smaller fashion houses need to manage their businesses in the fast-growing emerging markets directly. To do that, they need capital fast.
"The alternative, for those brands that can't, will be to fall behind and grow at a much slower rate," Solca said.
Fashion house Prada is also aiming for an IPO next year, having shelved the plan three times since 2001 because of unfavorable market conditions. It is likely to pick a global coordinator and bookrunners within the next month, people close to the matter said.
Both Ferragamo and Prada, which is run by designer Miuccia Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli, have been bolstering management with outside expertise as they prepare to go public.
Ferragamo appointed former Valentino chief executive officer Michele Norsa as CEO last year.
It recently made Bulgari SpA's former finance director, Ernesto Greco, chief financial officer, according to press reports last week.
Meanwhile, Prada has just brought in Brian Blake, a former president of British designer Burberry, to be chief operating officer.
