A $300M Payday Della Valle’s Golden Touch By Luisa Zargani MILAN — Christmas clearly comes more than once a year for Diego Della WWomen’s Wear Daily •W Thursday, December 16,D 2010• $3.00 Valle, chairman of Tod’s SpA. Having already made a paper profit of more than $180 million on his investment in Saks Inc., Della Valle, along with his brother Andrea, has just received more than $300 million from the sale of 10 percent of Tod’s shares. The brothers had asked Italy’s merchant bank Mediobanca to place just over three million shares of the luxury goods group on the market, which amounts to about 10 percent of Tod’s capital. WWD Italy’s Bourse said Wednesday that Men’s Mediobanca completed the operation at the price of 76 euros, or $101.90 at current exchange, a share, through an accelerated book-building offer. The operation netted the Della Valle Gentle brothers 232.5 million euros, or $311.7 million at current exchange. The Della Valle family remains the company’s largest shareholder after Spirit the placement, retaining almost/3 Tailored clothing manufacturers are banking TODAY on a fresh, modern take in Tremors suits and sport coats for fall Hit Tailored as they navigate through a Clothing/8 sea of challenges that include Men’s: Men’s tailored raw materials price hikes and apparel brands are uncertainties in production. worried over rising raw Here, Tommy Hilfiger’s wool materials prices and jacket, Boss Black’s wool capacity cuts in China, pants and Brooks Brothers’ but believe they can cotton shirt. Hackett tie and still grow sales in 2011 with updated looks and Robert Talbott tie bar. For more, new details. see pages 6 and 7. A Fast-Fashion Slowdown?/2 Retail: Despite reporting strong results, Inditex and H&M face growing worries over margin ; styled by alex badia ; styled by pressures in the e QU months ahead. lini C and Pre-Fall’s en K red Latest/10 Fashion: Looks from Adam, Reem Acra and Luca Luca. Loehmann’s to Exit Chapter 11/2 Financial: The retailer reaches agreement with creditors to exit bankruptcy on or before Feb. 18. PhoTo by DANIEL GARRIGA model: sam w/ford; grooming by anna bernabe for model: sam w/ford; grooming by 2 WWD, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2010 WWD.COM Margin Worries Rise for H&M, Inditex By Joelle Diderich Peter Farren, analyst at investment bank Bryan, Garnier & Co., said that although the results were PARIS — Fast-fashion retailers continued to thrive to be expected in light of a more difficult basis for in the run-up to the holiday season, but rising comparison in the fourth quarter, he would not rec- input costs threaten to pressure their margins ommend buying the stock for the next few months JuLy 12, 1972 heading into 2011, figures published Wednesday due to uncertainty over the gross margin in 2011. CASSINI ROYALE by market leaders Inditex SA and Hennes & “I think Inditex is better placed than H&M in Oleg Cassini wasn’t the only famous name Mauritz showed. terms of the gross margin because they source locally, in his family. His brother Igor was a major Spain’s Inditex, Europe’s largest clothing re- but that doesn’t mean they will be completely spared gossip columnist in the Fifties (under LA tailer and owner of the Zara chain, said net prof- by the rise in the price of raw materials,” he said. o the pseudonym Cholly Knickerbocker) MM it rose 42 percent in the first nine months of its H&M, conversely, faces tougher prospects for e and a publicist who, in 1963, was indict- S e 2010 fiscal year as the group continued to rapidly its gross margin in the next two quarters, but is P ed for failing to register as a paid agent be expand in Asia and roll out its Zara online store likely to benefit from easier comparisons in terms for Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. by across Europe. of like-for-like sales growth in the coming months, Nearly a decade later, WWD hunted him Meanwhile, H&M reported that same-store Farren noted. hoto Igor Cassini down in Rome, where he was writing his sales rose 8 percent in November, the same month The Stockholm-based firm said that, including P memoir. “The Fifties were the most bril- its collaboration with French luxury label Lanvin new stores, November sales rose 17 percent, com- liant years in American history,” Igor Cassini told the paper in 1972. was introduced, helping to fuel a 5 percent in- pared with 13 percent in October. On the same basis, “The old rules do not apply any more to this world.” crease in sales for the financial year as a whole. total sales for the 2009-2010 financial year, which The younger Cassini also shared his thoughts on the current crop Inditex posted net profit of 1.18 billion euros, runs from Dec. 1 to Nov. 30, were up 15 percent, of socials. “In New York, the leaders are those Vogue and Bazaar or $1.55 billion, between Feb. 1 and Oct. 31. Sales compared with a 4 percent increase in 2008-2009. write about,” he said. “The real solid controllers of Paris society are totaled 8.87 billion euros, or $11.64 billion, up 14 As of Nov. 30, the Swedish fast-fashion retailer the Guy de Rothchilds, backed up by the entire Rothschild clan.” percent versus the same period last year. Dollar operated 2,206 stores, compared with 1,988 on In Rome, he added, those honors went to the Agnellis, Marella and figures are converted from euros at average ex- Nov. 30, 2009. Gianni. “[But] social life in the world, with the exception of a few peo- change rates for the period in question. Inditex continued its rapid pace of store ex- ple who live in great mansions with many servants and lots of money, The gross margin stood at 59.9 percent of sales, pansion during the nine-month period, with 300 has lost its significance….Today it’s a person who has been noticed by up from 57.1 percent in the first nine months of fis- new units in 45 countries under its various ban- a newspaper or glossy magazine, a person in the right spot with the cal 2009. Store sales in local currencies climbed 10 ners, including Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, right people. So really society is a bad term to define these people. percent year-on-year be- Stradivarius and It’s really an old-fashioned term which is no longer right for this life.” tween Aug. 1 and Dec. 12. Pull&Bear. As of Oct. 31, And what of his thoughts on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, whom Analysts said the fig- it operated 4,907 stores his brother famously dressed? “It was my suggestion for Oleg to be- ures were broadly in in 77 countries. come the official White House designer,” Cassini said. “In the begin- line with expectations, This included 140 ning, Jackie looked naïve. After, she became queenly. But she has although, based on the stores in China and 63 in always been attracted by fame and fortune….I must say that she is available data, they Japan, where Bershka is one of the most ambitious people I have ever met.” —Venessa Lau calculated that sales set to arrive next year growth slowed some- with a flagship store in what during the first the Shibuya neighbor- six weeks of the fiscal hood of Tokyo. Massimo Loehmann’s in Bankruptcy Exit Deal fourth quarter. Duti recently opened its “We think this num- first two stores in South By Alexandra Steigrad ber is very satisfacto- Korea, where Zara al- r y,” said Marcos López, ready has 27 stores. LOEHMANN’S THINKS ITS SECOND TOUR OF BANKRUPTCY capital markets direc- “If you assume a can be wrapped up in a little over 90 days. tor of Inditex. “We have range of between 8 to 10 Loehmann’s Capital Corp. said Wednesday that it would exit still ahead of us the percent space growth in Chapter 11 on or before Feb. 18, after it reached an agreement Christmas season and The new Zara unit on Via del Corso in Rome. the case of Zara, at least with unsecured creditors. after Christmas, so I 50 percent of that will Through a rights offering to the firm’s senior secured Class would say that at this point in time, I believe that take place in Asia,” said Isla. A note holders, the retailer will receive a $25 million capital in- 10 percent sales growth in local currencies is a Inditex last week unveiled its 5,000th store, fusion upon emerging from Chapter 11. Under the terms of the very reasonable one.” a Zara unit in Rome that it has designated as a agreement, general unsecured creditors will obtain a pro rata Inditex deputy chairman and chief executive benchmark for the company’s plan to make all distribution consisting of $2 million in cash. officer Pablo Isla noted the exceptional factors stores eco-efficient by 2020. According to the company, this proposed restructuring plan that fueled gross margin growth in the first half of The retailer introduced online shopping for “should pave the way for an expedited Chapter 11 process.” 2010 — including inventory management, sourcing Zara in six European countries in September, mak- Loehmann’s, a New York-based off-price chain founded 89 years proximity and a positive currency impact — were ing the service available in five additional coun- ago, filed a voluntary prepackaged Chapter 11 petition in Manhattan set to fall away in the second half.