ROME (Reuters) -Italy’s troubled luxury lingerie company La Perla will be rescued and taken over by Peter Kern, the former chief executive of U.S. travel technology company Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE), the Italian government said on Tuesday.
Kern submitted the best offer for the firm through his luxury holding LLC, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said after a meeting with trade unions and the future new ownership.
The U.S. manager committed to investing around 30 million euros ($34.31 million) by 2027, avoiding redundancies and reviving production at La Perla’s factory in the northern city of Bologna, the minister added.
La Perla started off in 1954 as a corset company in Bologna, a city known for its silk industry, and expanded first into lingerie and then swimwear and nightwear. Its luxury bras sell for up to 470 euros.
Kern, who already has a connection to Italy as an owner of Brunello di Montalcino vineyards in Tuscany, presented his offer "in fluent Italian", to the joy of company workers, Urso said.
"It is a beautiful, extraordinary day for the Made in Italy (sector), for this (industry) icon that will be relaunched thanks to a major international investor," the minister told reporters.
La Perla was run by the family of its founder, Ada Masotti, until 2008 when it was sold to San Francisco-based buyout firm JH Partners, which already held a controlling stake.
BOND GIRLS AND FILM STARS
Amid growing financial and legal problems, the company was bought six years later at a court-led auction by Italian entrepreneur Silvio Scaglia - founder of telecoms group Fastweb and former owner of the Elite World Group model agency.
Scaglia’s 69-million euro offer outbid one by Calzedonia, a popular Italian group which owns legwear, swimwear and underwear brands.
La Perla, whose elaborate creations have been the favourites of celebrities and movie stars, including the so-called "Bond girls" of the James Bond spy films, continued to struggle after it was snapped up by German entrepreneur Lars Windhorst in 2018 at another judicial auction.
The turnaround plan presented by Kern, to be finalised over the coming weeks after talks with unions, should increase employment levels to around 250 from the current 210, Urso said.
In the meantime, Rome will this week approve furlough schemes to provide financial cover for La Perla’s idled workers until the transaction is completed, the minister said.
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