Zalando to acquire rival fashion retailer About You
Zalando is planning to acquire About You in a deal that values the German online fashion retailer at around €1.1 billion.
The move forms part of Zalando’s plans to build a pan-European fashion and lifestyle ecommerce platform around two growth vectors, B2C and B2B, to deepen relationships with customers and partners.
The companies have entered into an agreement under which Zalando intends to submit a voluntary public tender offer of €6.50 per share to acquire up to 100% of About You’s share capital.
Major About You shareholders Otto Group, Otto Family, Heartland and the About You management have entered into binding agreements to sell their shares, which represent around 73% of About You’s share capital, through the public offer or separately to Zalando.
Zalando said About You’s management and supervisory boards will recommend that shareholders accept the offer and that its founders Sebastian Betz, Tarek Müller and Hannes Wiese have committed to continuing in their current roles.
Robert Gentz, co-chief executive and co-founder of Zalando, said: “Redefining fashion and lifestyle shopping by creating the best possible experience for customers and partners has always driven both our teams. I’m excited about how together we’ll be able to cover a larger share of the fashion and lifestyle market.
“In B2C, we can offer customers and brands distinct and rich shopping experiences. In B2B, combining our complementary software capabilities, Tradebyte and Scayle, will create an even more advanced ecommerce operating system that enables brands and retailers to manage their multi-channel business across Europe and beyond.”
Zalando said the transaction comes with compelling value creation opportunities for the two companies as they will be collaborating in a wide range of areas such as B2B, logistics, payments and commercial.
Appealing to a young fashion audience, About You offers its 12 million active customers access to 700,000 styles from brands, manufacturers and private labels, as well as a range of celebrity collections.
