Gucci Shares Buyout By PPR

The remaining shareholders of the Gucci group have been offered to sell their shares to French retailer Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, enabling PPR to go ahead with the long-awaited USD8.8 billion buyout of the group. Gucci's investors have until April 2nd to sell their shares to PPR. The offer is due to expire on the April 29.

PPR currently owns 67.58 percent of Gucci, and the offer to buy the remaining shares is part of a 2001 agreement with LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Gucci shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange closed yesterday down 3 cents, or 0.04 percent, at USD85.47.

The acquisition of Gucci for PPR has not come without a price, and the steady takeover created great turmoil without the company. The least of which saw Domenico de Sole and Tom Ford, thte chief executive and creative director, leave after failing to reach agreement over the future of the brand.

A new design team at Gucci was recently appointed by PPR, opting for a less high-profile but secure team of in-house designers to replace Ford at the Gucci brand, while Stefano Pilati was named creative director of Yves Saint Laurent, also a part of the Gucci Group.