China’s Fosun International has beat Qatar’s Mayhoola and won the bidding contest for French fashion brand Lanvin. The sale agreement signed late on Friday comes weeks before France’s oldest fashion brand was expected to run out of cash.
 
The deal will see Fosun International invest more than 100 million euros in Lanvin with the company issuing new shares to its new controlling shareholder, one of the sources said. Chinese media magnate Shaw-Lan Wang based in Taiwan will lose control and remain a minority shareholder alongside Swiss German entrepreneur Ralph Bartel who put in new money as he wished to retain a stake, it said. It remains unclear how much of the cash injection would eventually go to Wang.

Sales at Lanvin have dwindled in recent years as the brand struggled to find a convincing creative voice and hire high-calibre executives after ousting celebrity designer Alber Elbaz in 2015.

 Fosun International is a group controlled by Shanghai billionaire Guo Guangchang with interests in insurance, trading and many other businesses including French holiday operator Club Med and knitwear band St. John in the United States.
  
Source: Fashion e.Network | Edited by Simrita Dhillon @SANDA