A Chinese consortium, co-led by billionaire Ding Shizhong, chairman of Anta Sports Products Ltd., has bought 163-year-old Italian luxury linen maker Frette for about €200 million ($214 million), according to a person familiar with the matter.
Ding participated in the deal via a personal investment vehicle, which is not related to the Hong Kong-listed Anta Sports, said the person. The consortium also includes Hong Kong businesswoman Adrienne Marie Ma, the former president of Joyce Boutique Group Ltd., the person said, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Change Capital Partners, the private equity firm founded by former Marks & Spencer Group Plc Chairman Luc Vandevelde, said in a statement Wednesday that the firm has sold its 100% interest in Frette to Raza Heritage Holdings, a “consortium of strategic and private equity investors in the consumer segment”, and did not disclose the price.
Hong Kong’s Companies Registry shows records for a company called Raza Heritage Investment Ltd., whose directors include Dennis Tao Tak Yan. It’s the same name of a senior executive at Anta Sports who oversees mergers and acquisition matters, according to a stock exchange filing in May. Another director is a person with the same name as Joyce’s Ma.
A representative for Anta Sports declined to comment, while Ding couldn’t be reached for comment. Change Capital, Ma and Joyce Boutique didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Founded in 1860, Frette makes and sells luxury linen products including $3,400 duvet covers and $270 bath towels. It has 34 flagship stores across the world, including two in mainland China, and provides products to more than 1,000 luxury hotels including the Ritz-Carlton, Peninsula and Rosewood brands, according to the company’s website.
Investments by China’s business tycoons in high-end brands reflect growing optimism about the country’s luxury market, which is expected to surpass both the US and Europe to be the world’s biggest by 2025, and is already enticing some of the industry’s top brands to boost their presence in the country. China’s wealthy consumers — whose spending accounts for about a fifth of global premium product sales — are splashing out at a younger age and many of them are doing more of their shopping domestically, making it even more important for global firms to get a foothold in the market.
Read More: China’s Big-Spending, Picky Youth Are Global Luxury’s Lifeline
Ding has a net worth of $7.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. His sportswear conglomerate Anta has more than 11,900 stores worldwide and reported revenue of 29.7 billion yuan ($4 billion) for the six months through June.
A consortium led by Anta bought Finland’s Amer Sports for about $5.2 billion in 2019 as part of an effort to bring high-end athletic equipment to China’s increasingly wealthy middle class. Amer Sports, the maker of Wilson tennis rackets and Salomon ski boots, has filed confidentially for a US initial public offering that could value the group at as much as $10 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
--With assistance from Fion Li and Daniela Wei.
(Correct to remove reference to Ding’s lawmaker status in second last paragraph.)