Roberta di Camerino acquired by Chinese fund

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Dec 16, 2014

Roberta di Camerino has once again changed hands. The well-known Venetian pop-chic handbag brand, acquired in 2008 by the fashion group Sixty, has been purchased by a Chinese private equity fund. United Trademark Group (UTG) announced in a statement that it has acquired a majority stake, while the value of the transaction remains undisclosed.

"The aim of the firm, which was founded in the 1980s and which is active on three continents, namely Europe, Asia and America, is to bring the brand back to its former splendor, developing its potential and underscoring its artisanal value,” the fund said in the statement, adding that the brand’s production is 100% Italian. 

UTG, which generates nearly 1.2 billion euros, specializes in acquiring undervalued fashion brands, and helping them grow in the Chinese marketplace.

Roberta di Camerino’s current CEO, Ercole De Cesare, will be supported by UTG executives Yuexi Pan and Cedric Devroye.

The brand was founded in 1945 by Giuliana Coen, who passed away in 2010. Born to a prominent Jewish family in Venice, Coen began producing innovative leather and fabric handbags in her small atelier after World War II. Success soon followed, the designer coming up with the name of the brand by combining the first name of her daughter and the last name of her husband: Roberta di Camerino.

Her designs, using colorful fabrics, including blue, green and red Venetian velvet featuring geometric and trompe-l’œil patterns, quickly attracted an international jet-set clientele, especially during the brand’s golden period in the 1960s and 1970s. 

The founders of the Sixty group (Miss Sixty, Energie, Killa, Murphy & Nye and RefrigiWear), Wicky Hassan and Renato Rossi, never managed to succeed in reviving the label, and were in turn affected by a deep crisis that culminated in the sale of their company to the Asian firm Crescent Hydepark in 2012.

According to the Italian press, Roberta di Camerino was not sold along with the Sixty group’s other brands, but remained in the hands of Renato Rossi and the heirs of Wicky Hassan, who died in 2011, until the recent sale to United Trademark Group.