U.S. clothing and handbag manufacturer Michael Kors is close to agreement on purchasing Italian fashion house Versace, New York Times reports quoting the sources, familiar with the situation.
“The deal would herald the end of independence for one the most famous autonomous fashion houses amid the wave of consolidation in the industry”, the edition reports.
Last month, it became known that the Italian company Ermenegildo Zegna Group acquired 85% of the brand Thom Browne for 500 million dollars.
In June, the previously independent fashion house Dries Van Noten reported on the sale of major shareholding. The Spanish corporation Puig, which owned such brands as Carolina Herrera, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci and Paco Rabanne, obtained control over the brand.
In 2014, U.S. giant Blackstone Group purchased 20-percent share from Versace and still owns it. Meanwhile, it is not known whether this fund plans to refuse from its share.
Previously, Bloomberg reported that Michael Kors estimated Versace at about 2 billion dollars and the deal was announced this week.
The fashion house Versace is one of few global brands, not belonging to large conglomerates, remaining under management of the founding family.
Versace includes over 200 boutiques in large cities and over 1.5 thousands of wholesale distributors worldwide.
After the murder of Gianni Versace in 1997, his sister Donatella Versace, formerly vice-president, took over as creative director and his older brother Santo Versace became CEO.
