Prada buys Versace

Prada buys Versace

“On 10 April 2025 Prada agreed to buy Versace from Capri Holdings (€1.25 billion enterprise value); it closed on 2 December 2025, Gianni Versace's birthday, with Lorenzo Bertelli as chairman.”

On 10 April 2025 the Prada Group, from Milan, agreed to buy 100% of Versace, another Milan fashion house, from Capri Holdings, the New York-listed group that also owns Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo. Prada put the price at an enterprise value of €1.25 billion; Capri called it $1.375 billion in cash. Both figures were open to adjustment at closing, and Prada's later accounts say it paid $1,395 million in cash, still subject to a final adjustment. The European Commission cleared the deal at the end of September, and it closed on 2 December 2025. Prada financed it with new bank loans (€1.5 billion arranged for the purchase, plus another €200 million), and it is the largest investment the Group has ever made.

Versace is a house built on one man's taste. Gianni Versace, born in Reggio Calabria on 2 December 1946, founded the company in Milan in 1978 with backing from the Girombelli family. He dressed film and music stars and the first supermodels in daring, glamorous clothes, and the Medusa head became the house's emblem. On 15 July 1997 Andrew Cunanan shot him dead on the front steps of his home in Miami Beach. His sister Donatella took over the design and kept it for almost three decades. In 2014 the family sold 20% to the investor Blackstone; in 2018 the family and Blackstone sold the whole company to Michael Kors Holdings (an enterprise value of €1.83 billion, $2.12 billion), which renamed itself Capri Holdings. Sales then slid. In Capri's own accounts Versace fell from $1,030 million in the year to March 2024 to $821 million a year later. A US court blocked Capri's merger with Tapestry (Coach) in October 2024, the companies dropped it on 14 November, and Capri looked for cash. By February 2025 Prada was reported to have exclusive talks.

Prada is far smaller than LVMH or Kering (€5.7 billion of revenue in 2025) but very profitable, with an operating margin above 20%. Mario Prada opened the first shop in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in 1913. From 1977 his granddaughter Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, her husband, built it into a global house, and the Group added Miu Miu, Church's, Car Shoe and the Milan pastry shop Marchesi 1824. Patrizio Bertelli and the Group's chief executive Andrea Guerra spoke for Prada at the signing; Miuccia had said in March that Versace was 'on everybody's table'. Prada called the match complementary; commentators set its minimalism against Versace's maximalism. The Group promised to keep Versace's 'creative DNA' while giving it Prada's factories, shops and discipline. The seller's gain was a lighter debt load; Capri said it would repay most of its debt.

What came after matters as much as the price. Donatella Versace had already stepped back to 'chief brand ambassador' on 1 April 2025, and her successor Dario Vitale, from Miu Miu, showed one collection in September before leaving by mutual agreement on 12 December, ten days after closing. At the closing, Lorenzo Bertelli, Miuccia and Patrizio's son, became Versace's executive chairman, and Emmanuel Gintzburger stayed as chief executive. On 5 February 2026 it named Pieter Mulier, formerly of Alaïa, chief creative officer from 1 July 2026, with a first collection promised for 2027. Prada reported Versace's 2025 revenue at €684 million and warned of losses of a similar size in 2026. The deal tests whether a small Italian group can revive a famous house, in a luxury market that has slowed.

What happened

  1. 2025

  2. Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore reports that Prada has agreed four weeks of exclusive talks with Capri Holdings about buying Versace. The next day Reuters adds that Prada has been given Versace's financial data ahead of other suitors, and that Capri is working with Barclays to explore a sale of Versace and Jimmy Choo. Prada declines to comment.

    Atelier Versace, Via Gesù 12, Milan: the address on the brass plate at Versace's Milan house, in the city where Gianni founded it in 1978

  3. At its 2024 results Prada reports revenue up 17% to €5.4 billion. Miuccia Prada says the idea of buying Versace is 'on everybody's table', and the chief executive Andrea Guerra says it would be arrogant not to look at opportunities; Italian press puts Versace's value at about €1.5 billion, below the €1.83 billion Capri paid in 2018.

    Via A. Fogazzaro 28, Milan: registered office of Prada S.p.A., the buyer

  4. Capri Holdings announces that Donatella Versace, who has led Versace's design since her brother's murder in 1997, will become Chief Brand Ambassador, and that Dario Vitale, design and image director at Prada's Miu Miu, will become Versace's chief creative officer.

    Atelier Versace, Via Gesù 12, Milan: the address on the brass plate at Versace's Milan house, in the city where Gianni founded it in 1978

  5. The creative handover takes effect: Donatella Versace becomes Chief Brand Ambassador, concentrating on the house's charitable work, and Vitale takes the creative lead.

    Atelier Versace, Via Gesù 12, Milan: the address on the brass plate at Versace's Milan house, in the city where Gianni founded it in 1978

  6. Capri's board decides to sell Versace to Prada, two days before the agreement is signed.

  7. Prada announces a definitive agreement to buy 100% of Versace from Capri Holdings, at an enterprise value of €1.25 billion on a debt-free, cash-free basis (Capri says $1.375 billion in cash); the final price is to be set at closing. Both boards have approved it, closing is expected in the second half of 2025, and Prada will fund it with €1.5 billion of new debt. Prada says Versace will keep its 'creative DNA' while using the Group's factories and shops; Patrizio Bertelli promises 'a strong platform', and Andrea Guerra warns that 'the journey will be long'. Prada's management speaks to analysts at 3.30pm CEST.

    Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan: the arcade where Mario Prada opened Prada's first shop in 1913

  8. Capri says what the sale is for: a stronger balance sheet, faster investment in Michael Kors, debt reduction and share buybacks. Its chief executive John Idol calls Prada the right company to take Versace into its next era of growth.

  9. Dario Vitale shows his first and, as it turns out, only Versace collection (Spring/Summer 2026), in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan during Milan Fashion Week. Reviews are mixed.

    Atelier Versace, Via Gesù 12, Milan: the address on the brass plate at Versace's Milan house, in the city where Gianni founded it in 1978

  10. The European Commission announces that it has cleared Prada's purchase of sole control of Versace (case M.11995) under the EU merger rules, in the simplified procedure, finding no competition concerns.

    Berlaymont building, Brussels: the European Commission's headquarters, which cleared the deal as case M.11995

  11. Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada's marketing chief and head of corporate social responsibility and the son of Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, says in a Bloomberg podcast interview that he will be Versace's executive chairman once the deal closes. He says the brand is 'much bigger than its revenue' and that Prada likes 'difficult missions'.

    Via A. Fogazzaro 28, Milan: registered office of Prada S.p.A., the buyer

  12. The sale closes. Prada's one-line statement says all regulatory clearances were received. The date is Gianni Versace's birthday (he was born on 2 December 1946), and Donatella Versace writes on Instagram that it is the day Versace joins the Prada family.

    Atelier Versace, Via Gesù 12, Milan: the address on the brass plate at Versace's Milan house, in the city where Gianni founded it in 1978

  13. Prada pays US$1,395 million in cash, subject to a final price adjustment, and draws the €1 billion term loan, €300 million of its €500 million bridge loan and a separate €200 million loan; its accounts show provisional goodwill of €1,002 million.

    Via A. Fogazzaro 28, Milan: registered office of Prada S.p.A., the buyer

  14. Capri says it will use the money to repay most of its debt, and carries on as a two-brand group, Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo.

  15. Versace announces that Dario Vitale and the house have agreed to part ways, effective 12 December. The design team will work under chief executive Emmanuel Gintzburger, and new creative leadership is promised 'in due course'.

    Atelier Versace, Via Gesù 12, Milan: the address on the brass plate at Versace's Milan house, in the city where Gianni founded it in 1978

  16. Vitale's departure takes effect, ten days after Prada took over.

  17. 2026

  18. Prada Group and Versace name Pieter Mulier, until then creative director of Alaïa, as Versace's chief creative officer from 1 July 2026. He will report to Lorenzo Bertelli, who says Prada identified him as the right person while it was weighing the acquisition.

  19. In its 2025 results Prada says Versace's net revenues were €684 million in 2025 (€65 million of it counted from 2 December) and that it made operating losses, which are expected to continue at a similar size in 2026, with some fall in sales. It confirms Emmanuel Gintzburger as Versace's CEO, Lorenzo Bertelli as executive chairman and Pieter Mulier's first collection for 2027, and expects full separation from Capri in the second half of 2026.

    Via A. Fogazzaro 28, Milan: registered office of Prada S.p.A., the buyer

  20. Pieter Mulier formally starts at Versace.

  21. Prada's first-half results show Versace adding €305 million of net revenues in the half, 'in line with expectations'; Andrea Guerra says Mulier's arrival marks the start of the brand's new creative journey.

    Via A. Fogazzaro 28, Milan: registered office of Prada S.p.A., the buyer