Lanvin Group made its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange this week, combining with blank check firm Primavera Capital Acquisition Corporation with the aim of raising nearly $450 million to fund its global expansion efforts. (For a dive into SPACs, you can find that here.) The reality of LANV’s debut on Thurs. was quite a bit lower than the figures it first set out in March, with the group – which consists of French fashion brand Lanvin, footwear brand Sergio Rossi, knitwear company St. John, hosiery-maker Wolford, and menswear company Caruso – raising $150 million at a valuation of $1.31 billion.
Looking to compete with luxury’s well-established conglomerates, Shanghai-based Lanvin Group has touted itself as having “a differentiated strategy to build a luxury powerhouse for a new generation of consumers, especially benefiting from surging luxury consumption in Asia.”
– In particular, the group has emphasized the “significant growth opportunities” in Greater China, and its ability to act as an “unparalleled” pipeline to “the largest and fastest growing luxury market in the world” by virtue of it being the first and only global luxury group headquartered in China.
– Specifically addressing its plans to leverage its capabilities in China, which is expected to become the world’s largest luxury market by 2025, Lanvin Group stated in an investor presentation in Nov. that it has a “360° brand operation by local team, support from strategic partners, dedicated content and product offerings, and online and offline expansion [opportunities].”
Lanvin Group’s ambitions have been met with skepticism, with Bernstein analysts stating on Wednesday, for example, that “no matter the progress, we wonder if Lanvin has what it takes to stay on the map, as it lacks even a distant resemblance to a mega-brand.” They note that “competitive dynamics favor scale and megabrands in a luxury market of accelerating speed and complexity escalation” – more about that here – and Lanvin is lacking both scale and megabrands: “Lanvin Group owns 5 different brands and yet none of them stands out in terms of sales, customer awareness or desirability.”
On the litigation front …
– Influencer fraud – The SEC has levied charges eight individuals in a $100 million securities fraud scheme in which they used the social media platforms Twitter and Discord to manipulate exchange-traded stocks. (That complaint is here.)
– SEC v. SBF – The SEC charged Sam Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX. “We allege that [SBF] built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said on Tuesday. (That complaint is here.)
– Celeb v. Paparazzi – Bella Hadid is the latest name on our running list of paparazzi v. celeb copyright lawsuits, with a photo agency accusing the model of posting a photo of herself (for which it maintains a © registration) to her Instagram in June 2021 w/o authorization.
In recent deal-making news: Warner Music Group announced an investment in – and impending partnership with – DRESSX, a digital fashion retailer and the largest digital closet with a deep commitment to sustainable fashion. The parties described the “first-of-its-kind partnership” as providing a platform for select WMG artists to design their own virtual fashion lines.
– Fashion Cloud has raised €25 million in a round led by European specialist growth equity investor Verdane and involving existing investors, including HEARTLAND. The 7-year-old Hamburg-based company boasts a B2B data and content exchange portal for fashion wholesalers and retailers.