Prada officially buys rival Italian luxury brand – Business News
MILAN — The Prada Group closed the acquisition of Milan fashion rival Versace in a $1.375 billion money deal that places the fashion home recognized for its horny silhouettes underneath the identical roof as Prada’s “ugly chic” aesthetic and Miu Miu’s youth-driven appeal.
The extremely anticipated deal is predicted to relaunch Versace’s fortunes, after middling post-pandemic efficiency as half of the US luxury group Capri Holdings.
Prada stated in a one-line assertion that the acquisition had been accomplished after receiving all regulatory clearances. Capri Holdings, which owns Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, stated the money can be used to pay down debt.
Shoppers stroll previous a Versace store in Milan on Dec. 2, 2025. AP Photo/Luca Bruno
Donatella Versace welcomed the deal in an Instagram post, which additionally marked the birthday of the brand’s late founder, her brother, Gianni Versace.
“Today is your day and the day Versace joins the Prada household. I’m pondering of the smile you’ll have had in your face,’’ she wrote in a post that additionally featured a 1979 picture of Gianni Versace with Miuccia Prada.
Versace’s future
Prada inheritor Lorenzo Bertelli is set to steer Versace’s subsequent section as govt chairman, along with his roles as group advertising and marketing director and sustainability chief.
The son of co-creative director Miuccia Prada and longtime Prada Group chairman Patrizio Bertelli has stated he doesn’t anticipate to make any swift govt modifications at Versace, though he additionally famous that the company, which is among the many prime 10 most acknowledged manufacturers on this planet, has long been underperforming within the market.
A show within the window of a Prada store in Milan seen on Dec. 2, 2025. AP Photo/Luca Bruno
Prada has underlined that the 47-year-old Versace brand supplied “vital untapped growth potential.’
Versace is present process a inventive relaunch underneath a new designer, Dario Vitale, who previewed his first assortment during Milan Fashion Week in September. He was beforehand head of design at Miu Miu, however his transfer to Versace was unrelated to the Prada deal, executives have stated.
Capri Holdings paid $2 billion for Versace in 2018, however had been struggling to place the manufacturers’ daring profile within the latest period of “quiet luxury.″
Leather good trainees working on the Prada manufacturing unit in Scandicci, Italy on Nov. 28, 2025. AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
Capri Holdings chairman John D. Idol stated in a assertion that “Prada is the best associate to information this celebrated luxury home into its subsequent period of growth.’’
Versace represented 20% of Capri Holdings’ 2024 income of 5.2 billion euros,
Prada stated when the deal was introduced in April that Versace would characterize 13% of the Prada Group’s pro-forma revenues, with Miu Miu coming in at 22% and Prada at 64%. The Prada Group, which additionally contains Church’s footwear, reported a 17% increase in revenues to five.4 billion euros final yr.
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Prada’s in-house manufacturing
The Prada Group has already begun preparations to include crosstown rival Versace into its Italian manufacturing system, a level of delight for the group.
“Making a bag for one brand or another, the know-how is the same,” Bertelli advised reporters final week on the group’s Scandicci leather-based items manufacturing unit, which already makes luggage for the Prada and Miu Miu manufacturers and can quickly add Versace.
A Prada brand getting stitched on an merchandise on the Prada manufacturing unit. AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
Artisans stitched handles onto leather-based luggage, and cut leather-based with laser machines inside the leather-based items manufacturing unit, the place trainees have been studying the commerce as half of Prada’s 25-year-old academy. It has educated some 570 new artisans in an in-house coaching program within the Tuscany, Marche, Veneto and Umbria areas.
Last yr, Prada employed 70% of the 120 artisans who educated within the academy. The quantity of trainees rose by 28% to 152 this yr.
The Prada Group has invested 60 million euros in its provide chain this yr, together with a new leather-based items manufacturing unit close to Siena, a new knitwear manufacturing unit close to Perugia, in addition to rising manufacturing at its Church’s footwear manufacturing unit in Britain and increasing one other Tuscan manufacturing unit. That’s on prime of 200 million euros in investments from 2019-24.
