Clessidra Acquires Roberto Cavalli

by William Buckley

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Italian private equity fund Clessidra acquired control of fashion house Roberto Cavalli on Thursday, April 30. Cavalli agreed to sell a 90 percent stake to Clessidra, while he will retain ownership of the remaining 10 percent. The deal marks the end of more than 40 years of the Italian brand’s ownership under Cavalli.

Cavalli has been talking to multiple private equity firms over the past year to sell a majority of the company including Permira, Ivestcorp and VTB Captial. In December, Clessidra announced that it was discussing an acquisition with Cavalli and would hope to close the deal by March.

The fashion house also recently appointed Peter Dundas, the former creative director of Pucci as creative director. Renato Semerari, previously president at U.S. perfume group Coty was named CEO and Francesco Trapani, former chief executive officer of Bulgari will assume the chairman role of the company.