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What happened?
Just over a week after Giorgio Armani passed away, new details have emerged about his vision for the future of the company he built over 50 years.
Armani’s will reportedly instructs his heirs to offload a 15 per cent stake in the business within 18 months of his passing, with a much larger tranche — between 30 per cent and 54.9 per cent — to be sold to the same buyer three to five years later, according to Reuters and Bloomberg, which have both seen a copy of the will. Otherwise, an IPO will be pursued.
According to the news agencies, the will states that priority should be given to French luxury conglomerate LVMH, French beauty giant L’Oréal Group, eyewear industry leader EssilorLuxottica, or other groups already linked to Armani through existing business partnerships.
L’Oréal Group, which owns the Armani beauty licence, declined to comment on the news when contacted by Vogue Business. LVMH and EssilorLuxottica, which owns the eyewear license for Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani and Armani Exchange, couldn’t be reached at the time of going to press. Armani declined to comment.
Why it matters
Armani upheld independence as a cardinal value throughout his career. The fact that the brand may, in the coming years, become part of a bigger group marks the end of an era.
We have had few details on Armani’s succession plan so far. What we knew was that Armani held 99.9 per cent of the shares in the company he built, the remaining 0.01 per cent belonging to the Giorgio Armani Foundation, which he created in 2016. The foundation will run the company, and longtime collaborator Leo Dell’Orco and Armani’s niece Silvana Armani are among the figures expected to play a key role.
Now, Armani’s will has indicated three preferred partners. “He indicated partners that have a significant size and potential synergies,” says Mario Ortelli, managing director of Ortelli & Co. “These three groups’ sales are north of €26 billion, which means Armani would represent less than 10 per cent of their revenues [in 2024, Armani group revenues were €2.3 billion, down 5 per cent year on year]. LVMH has a decentralised model with its houses, while L’Oréal and EssilorLuxottica aren’t focused on fashion, so they would give Armani a certain autonomy. We see he seeks to build a safety net while keeping a level of autonomy.”