ShowroomPrivé co-founder grows stake to 37%

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Sep 5, 2022

David Dayan, boss and co-founder of ShowroomPrivé, now holds a 37.17% stake in the company, as well as 47.81% of the voting rights, after buying 13.9 million shares from co-founder Thierry Petit, who left the group at the end of December 2021.

Dayan’s investment marks the end of a transition phase begun nearly a year ago, in October 2021, when Petit announced his intention to leave the group. Petit then said in June that he would cede his stake in the company, which at the time amounted to 17.60%, equivalent to €20.9 million. Eric Sitruk of Fashion Bel Air has acquired another portion of Petit's shareholding, growing his stake from 5% to 7.53%.

This announcement comes at a difficult juncture for ShowroomPrivé, which recorded a 21% sales slump in H1 2022, while managing to remain profitable, generating €1.6 million in net income. Difficulties that the group had heralded as early as March, faced with the expected impact on consumer behaviour of the invasion of Ukraine and rising inflation.

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“In this context, we say that our job as inventory clearance specialists allows us to offer leading brands at attractive prices, at a time when consumers will want to gratify themselves while preserving their purchasing power,” Dayan told FashionNetwork.com in June, “but we remain vigilant about H2, because we don’t know how consumption trends will evolve. The situation could turn tough if inflation continues to rise. Like labels themselves, we are obliged to review our budgets every month.”

The latest shift in ShowroomPrivé's management and shareholding structure has taken place at the end of a reorganisation and transformation phase for the group's entire business. A phase that started in 2019 when, following a string of negative results, co-founders Dayan and Petit had reinvested in the company which, according to them, had “grown too fast.”

After three deficit years prior to the pandemic, the listed group managed to post a profit of €27.3 million in 2021, while its sales volume increased by 3.1%. In the meantime, ShowroomPrivé’s model has continued to evolve, notably with the launch in June of ‘Village’, a permanent showcase for premium labels.