VTB Capital may buy majority stake in Cavalli

© 2014 AFP - The Russian bank VTB Capital, targeted by the latest EU economic sanctions against Russia, is considering buying 60% of the Italian fashion house Roberto Cavalli, according to a report on Monday by the Russian daily Vedomosti.

According to the financial newspaper’s anonymous source, the deal would garner Robert Cavalli, the sole owner of the brand, about 500 million euros, the entirety of the fashion house estimated at 830 million euros.

Contacted by the AFP (Agence-France Presse), the Russian bank VTB Capital, which is among several Russian banks that has been denied access to Western financial markets by the EU for at least three months as a result of the crisis in Ukraine, declined to confirm this information.

The fashion house was also not immediately able to comment.

For at least the last six years, the Italian designer has been considering selling a part or all of his brand, as has done his compatriot Valentino, the couture house bought by the company Mayhoola Investments, financed by a group of private investors from Qatar.

In May 2014, a Bahraini investment firm, Investcorp, had expressed interest in purchasing Cavalli for 450 million euros.

Five months earlier, the Financial Times announced that the European investment fund Permira was negotiating a deal to buy the house for 460 million euros.

In 2008, Permira had joined a number of suitors vying to purchase the brand a few months after Roberto Cavalli announced its intention to go public, which it never carried out.