Prada buys Versace in €1.25bn deal uniting Italy’s biggest fashion brands

Prada has agreed to buy the Versace fashion brand for €1.25bn ($1.38bn) from the fashion conglomerate Capri Holdings.It comes after months of speculation about a potential deal to combine the two Italian fashion houses and, more recently, rumours that the acquisition was set to collapse after market upheaval in response to President Trump’s tariff policies.Insiders say the original deal was expected to be agreed at €1.43bn, but a discount of about €180m was achieved because the recent market turmoil and trade uncertainty has hit the retail industry particularly hard.Big brands vs retailers: who will absorb the tariff impact in their profit margins? | Nils PratleyRead moreCapri, which also owns Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, originally bought Versace for $2.1bn in 2018. After an $8.5bn attempt by Tapestry – the American group that owns Coach and Kate Spade – to acquire Capri was blocked last year by the US Federal Trade Commission, Capri has been under pressure to sell off Versace to redu...