Dive Brief:
- Tod’s SpA has entered an agreement with LVMH-backed private equity firm L Catterton in a plan to take the company private, according to a company filing Saturday.
- The offer will give L Catterton a 36% stake in Tod’s for 43 euros a share, or about $46 at current exchange rates.
- This is the second time Tod’s has attempted to delist. In December 2022, DeVa Finance, the holding company for Tod’s founders the Della Valle family, nixed its plans to delist “after its initial buyout failed to meet the required threshold of support,” according to Reuters.
Dive Insight:
LVMH is already a 10% shareholder in Tod’s, after LVMH increased its share up from 3.2% in 2021. At the time, LVMH referred to the boost as a reinforcement of the 20-year “friendship between the Arnault and Della Valle families.”
Diego Della Valle, CEO, and his brother Andrea Della Valle, will remain majority shareholders of Tod’s with 54%. Diego Della Valle, however, will tender 10.45% stake to L Catterton.
"Leaving the stock exchange now... is the most appropriate strategic choice," Diego Della Valle said in a statement to Reuters.
In a communication published by Tod’s on behalf of L Catterton, the companies said the delisting pursuit is meant to set the Tod’s Group up for future growth programs and consolidation, “to the extent that the Delisting would allow the Issuer to pursue its objectives in a market environment and legal framework characterized by greater management and organizational flexibility, with faster decision-making and execution times and also benefiting from reduced management and listing costs.”
A Tod’s spokesperson didn’t comment beyond the filing.
L Catterton is a joint venture between private equity firm Catterton, LVMH and Groupe Arnault, the latter of which is the family holding company of Bernard Arnault, founder, chairman and CEO of LVMH.
Tod’s recently named Matteo Tamburini creative director in December 2023 following the September exit of Walter Chiapponi. Tamburini is responsible for both womenswear and menswear and will present his first collection at Milan Fashion Week later this month.
For its full 2023 fiscal year, the Tod’s Group generated 1.13 billion euros in revenue, a 11.9% year-over-year increase.
