LVMH UPS FENDI STAKE/2 PACSUN RIDES THE PROFIT WAVE/2 Women’sWWD Wear Daily • The Retailers’TUESDAY Daily Newspaper • May 13, 2003 Vol. 185, No. 98 $2.00 Ready-to-Wear/Textiles Black Beauty NEW YORK — With images like Marlon Brando in “The Wild Ones,” Joan Jett onstage or the young Madonna in a Herb Ritts photograph, the appeal of black leather has staying power. Fashionistas may talk brights, but they love black, and this season’s suede and leather options are irresistible. Here, a case in point: Siena Studio’s side-laced top with Ellus Edition’s cotton denim jeans at Showroom Seven. Belt from Trash and Vaudeville; J. Mendel gloves. For more, see pages 6 and 7. ICS AT JUMP; ICS STYLED BOBBI AT BY QUEEN AND BROOKE MAGNAGHI U.K. Retail in Play: Selfridges OKs Weston’s $1.14 Billion Offer By Samantha Conti Weston’s company Oxford And Selfridges wasn’t the only LONDON — Canadian billionaire Galen Acquisitions Ltd., valuing the department store attracting interest Weston is poised to add another department store chain at Monday. In a further heating up of jewel to his retail crown: Selfridges. approximately $965 million. In takeover activity in the once- On Monday, the board of Selfridges addition, OAL plans to assume maligned sector, Debenhams plc said formally recommended an offer by Selfridges’ net debt of $49 million. See Weston, Page 11 PHOTO BY KYLE ERICKSEN; MODEL: KATERENA ALKHIMIVA/FORD; HAIR: CRYSTAL GERARD AT BUMBLE AND PHOTO GERARD AT BUMBLE; ERICKSEN; ALKHIMIVA/FORD; KYLE BY HAIR: MAKEUP: MODEL: CRYSTAL MIZU KATERENA FOR REAL COSMET 2 LVMH Reveals 84.1% Stake in Fendi WWDTUESDAY Ready-to-Wear/Textiles PARIS — LVMH Moët Hennessy According to Antoine Belge, Louis Vuitton continues to buy Bernard luxury analyst at HSBC in Paris, Arnault GENERAL and sell — albeit quietly. the overall price paid values Designers’ endless affection for black leather is now featuring edgy punk or For example, the French luxu- Fendi at around $1.32 billion to Goth looks, a motorcycle mood, or simply a dominatrix-inspired tale. ry giant upped its stake in Fendi $1.55 billion. In a research note, 6 to 84.1 percent in the first quarter he said the high price poses “a Selfridges’ board formally recommended an offer by Canadian billionaire of the year, according to a recent difficult challenge” in terms of 1 Galen Weston, valuing the British chain at approximately $965 million. statutory filing with Balo, value creation, but gives LVMH LVMH continues to buy and sell — albeit quietly — and has upped its stake WWD, TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2003 WWD, TUESDAY, France’s official government pub- “almost total freedom in the im- in Fendi to 84.1 percent, according to an official French statutory filing. lication of record. plementation of its rejuvenation 2 The filing says LVMH paid strategy.” Stores dusted themselves off after reporting a rough April last week and $218.5 million for the additional The same Balo filing also de- 2 said so far May has been, more or less, on plan. 17.2 percent stake in Fendi. It is tails other transactions. Benefiting from sales of female apparel and accessories, Pacific Sunwear believed that Carla Fendi, presi- It said LVMH netted $13.9 mil- of California reported first-quarter income swelled 144.5 percent. dent and head of communica- lion for the sale of its one-third 2 tions, is the only member of the stake in Michael Kors LLC. Silas EYE: Seventies TV characters go party hopping in San Francisco…Meet founding family retaining shares. Chou and Lawrence Stroll, 4 Miss Moss, the latest from Down Under. In total, LVMH paid $1.11 billion through their company Sports- to acquire the 84.1 percent stake. wear Holdings Limited, conclud- Classified Advertisements ..................................................................14-15 Dollar figures are converted from ed separate deals in January to To e-mail reporters and editors at WWD, the address is euros at current exchange rates. acquire a controlling stake in [email protected], using the individual's name. LVMH and Prada Group jointly Kors, as reported. acquired 51 percent of the Rome- LVMH also spent $32.5 million SUBSCRIPTION RATES U.S. and possessions, Retailer, daily one year, $99; Manufacturer, daily one year, $135. based leather goods and fashion to increase its stake to 97 per- All others U.S., daily one year $195. Canada/Mexico, daily one year, $295. All other foreign (Air Speed), daily one year $595. house in 1999. LVMH bought cent, from 45 percent, in the Please allow 6-8 weeks for service to start. Individual subscription information/Single Copy Sales : (800) 289-0273; outside U.S. (818) 487-4526; new group subscription information 212-630-4196 Prada’s stake in November 2001, Italian shoemaker Rossimoda Postmaster: Send address changes to WWD, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008. and the 15.9 percent stake held SpA, and it sold for a symbolic $1 WWD (ISSN #0149-5380) is published daily except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue every month except July, and two additional issues in April and August, by Fairchild Publications, Inc. by Franca Fendi last July. its remaining 27.5 percent stake a subsidiary of Advance Publications Inc., 7 West 34th Street, New York, NY 10001-8191. Fendi officials could not be in art auctioneer Phillips. WWD is a registered trademark of Fairchild Publications Inc.© 2003 by Fairchild Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Advance Publications Inc. All rights reserved. reached for comment. — Miles Socha No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing by the copyright owner. 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By Evan Clark et each rose, with the latter ment stores sales for the second making up a bit more of the week of its fiscal month tracked NEW YORK — Stores dusted comp increase. toward the expected 2 to 3 per- In Brief themselves off after reporting a Target Corp. said it was on cent comp increase in May. rough April last week and said track to meet its plan, calling for Taken together, the first two May has been, more or less, on a flat to up 2 percent comp at its weeks of the month tracked G UNITED COLORS OF PROFIT: Benetton said cost-cutting and plan. discount stores in May. The total ahead of plan. its decision to sell its money-losing sporting goods business lift- Sales last week in Wal-Mart corporation is expected to lag ShopKo Stores Inc. said comps ed its first-quarter net profit 28.9 percent to $28.8 million from Stores Inc.’s U.S. operations the lead division by a percentage for the first week of the month $21.9 million. Sales fell 0.7 percent to $512.2 million from $515.6 tracked in line with the firm’s point. Weakest merchandise cat- came in below the May plan for a million. The company said sales from its casual-clothing busi- planned 1 to 3 percent compa- egories at the discount stores last low-single-digit decline. ness in the first three months of the year, excluding currency im- rable-store gain for May. Ap- week included men’s apparel, In other Target news, the firm pact, rose 3.8 percent to 351 million euros, which at Monday’s parel was among the weakest jewelry and accessories and inti- said it plans to drop paid vaca- historically high exchange rate of $1.16 per euro translated to merchandise categories of the mate apparel. tion and healthcare coverage for $405.7 million. Benetton wrote down the value of its sporting week. Traffic and average tick- J.C. Penney Co. said depart- Continued on page 12 goods business last year, forcing it to post a full-year loss. Benetton has sealed deals to sell all of its sports brands, includ- ing Rollerblade, Prince and Nordica. G UNITE, BRYLANE INK DEAL: UNITE and Brylane LP said Monday they had reached a three-year contract for employees at PacSun Profits Shine in Quarter the catalog retailer’s Indianapolis distribution center. The agreement calls for a 9 percent wage increase over its term and By Jennifer Weitzman “We made great progress in The company, which operates includes a “strong benefit package” according to a joint state- our operations,” Greg Weaver, 808 stores under the PacSun and ment from the union and the company. This comes a little more NEW YORK — Benefiting from chairman and chief executive, Demo nameplates, said it will than three months after the roughly more than 700 workers at sales in its female apparel and said on a conference call. “Both continue to aggressively grow its the facility voted in favor of the union. That vote followed a 15- accessories businesses, Pacific concepts posted comp increases girls’ division, noting that the month organizing campaign in which the union targeted Brylane Sunwear of California turned in all key categories.” unit comprised 48 percent of and other fashion companies in which Brylane’s parent, Pinault- up the teen heat as first-quarter In advance of the results, overall apparel sales in the first Printemps-Redoute, holds an ownership position.