La Perla’s owner puts taking a stake in Naked Brand on hold

Sapinda takes a break. The Dutch fund, owner of La Perla, has put on hold the investment in the intimate and swimwear conglomerate Naked Brand which it had planned to do by means of an operation that ascended to 25 million dollars (21 million euros).

Lars Windhorst, Sapinda’s co-founder and CEO, has explained that the company decided to revise its investment plan due to the instability that was being registered in financial markets.

Sapinda predicts to take a stake in the lingerie company “once market conditions stabilize” so that they can “look forward to building a long-term partnership with Naked in the future”, according to a jointed statement emitted by both companies.

Sapinda owns La Perla since last February and its intention is to keep on growing in lingerie markets.

Last August, the Dutch fund announced that they were going to take a stake in Naked Brand so as to launch an e-commerce platform of the Australian company as well as to improve its infrastructure.

Naked Brand is listed in the New York Stock Exchange, it is specialised in lingerie and operates in 44 countries through 6,000 points of sales. The corporation owns brands such as Naked, Bendom or Davenport, to name a few.

The Australian company reduced its losses during the last fiscal year (ended the 31^st of January) in 10.79 million dollars (9.23 million euros) in negative, contrasting with the 19.06 million dollars (16.3 million euros) which it had in the red last year.

La Perla, on the other hand, is controlled by the Dutch fund Sapinda since last February, when the fund acquired the totality of the company’s shares from its previous owner, the Italian businessman Silvio Scaglia. Since then, the investment group has started a restructuration plan so the company can go back to provide benefits.