Son of Escada Founder Bids for German Fashion House


Sven Ley, the son of Escada founder Wolfgang Ley, has teamed up with the former head of Gucci, Giacomo Santucci, and Italian investment group Borletti to mount a rescue bid for the German luxury fashion house. Escada, once one of the world's top fashion labels, filed for insolvency in August after years of diminishing sales took their toll and a broad restructuring plan failed to win approval from bondholders. The insolvency administrator has since been looking for a new investor and is now in the final stages of negotiations. Ley's consortium, ZSL Partners, has offered to pay almost €80 million ($118.2 million) for the fashion house, guaranteeing a minimum price of €50 million, a person close to the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The consortium said in a statement it aims to boost Escada's sales to more than 500 million euros by 2014 without any major redundancies in Germany, and to bring Santucci on board as chief executive. Santucci has worked for fashion brands like Prada, Gucci and Lang in the past. Escada reported sales of €151 million for the first half of its fiscal year. Read more.