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Prada completes acquisition of flashy rival Versace / Photo: Miguel MEDINA - AFP
Prada completes acquisition of flashy rival Versace
Italian fashion group Prada announced on Tuesday it had completed its acquisition of smaller rival Versace, announced earlier this year for 1.25 billion euros (now $1.45 billion).
Prada Group said in a statement that the deal with Capri Holdings, the US group which owned Versace, had "received all required regulatory clearances".
Lorenzo Bertelli -- the son of designer Miuccia Prada and chief marketing officer -- will become executive chairman of Versace following the takeover.
Versace's lustre had been waning in recent years, unlike that of the Prada Group, which is in robust health, fuelled by strong sales of its younger Miu Miu Line.
Prada Chief Executive Andrea Guerra told journalists during a factory visit that Versace was "extraordinarily different from our other brands in the portfolio".
The flashy label "invented fashion as we know it today", bringing it closer to popular culture, and as such "strikes a different aesthetic and appeals to a different consumer", he added.
A.Harris--SMC
