MILAN — LuisaViaRoma’s competitive sale process went through as widely expected, with the pool of investors behind ATO SpA, the e-tailer’s most recent lessee, taking over its business operations.
The purchase price was 18.83 million euros, equal to the starting bid set by a Florence court for the auction sale. The acquisition procedure is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.
No other bidder submitted an offer, not even Italian fashion group Arav — the owner of John Richmond and Silvian Heach — which last October said it was actively looking into the LuisaViaRoma dossier and considering whether to participate in the competitive sale.
This latest development marks a turning point for the troubled retailer, which had been trying to safeguard its ailing business for more than a year.
The sale process was conducted as part of the Italian e-tailer’s court-supervised “Concordato Semplificato” restructuring and judicial liquidation proceeding. The company had filed for the procedure in March, feeling the pinch of macroeconomic headwinds, dented consumer confidence and geopolitical instability.
ATO SpA, a holding company backed by a pool of Italian investors with industrial backgrounds and led by veteran fashion executive Paolo Corinaldesi, a former chief executive officer of Woolrich and Filson, had submitted an irrevocable purchase offer last July.
In a first vote of confidence toward ATO SpA in July, the Florence Court greenlit the lease of the e-tailer’s business operations to LVR Srl, a newco established and promoted by the same investors, which has ensured business continuity until now.
ATO SpA’s purchase offer covers LuisaViaRoma’s brands, e-commerce and technology platforms, inventory, customer databases, contracts, goodwill, the FFW subsidiary, which operates its white-label e-commerce services, and the employees transferred with the business.
The consideration is made up of 4 million euros in cash and 14.8 million euros in assumed liabilities, including selected bank and employee obligations, as well as certain tax and social security liabilities. As part of its offer, ATO SpA also proposed a potential 3 million-euro earn-out if cumulative earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the 2026-29 period exceed 23 million euros.
Current lessee LVR Srl is expected to remain the designated entity managing the business. Corinaldesi will continue to serve as executive chairman of LVR Srl, and Tommaso Maria Andorlini, who was named CEO of LuisaViaRoma in 2023, will retain his role.
LuisaViaRoma executive chairman Paolo Corinaldesi and CEO Tommaso Maria Andorlini.
Courtesy of LuisaViaRoma
The investors behind ATO SpA include two branches of the Marzotto family, with Luca and Gaetano Marzotto directly involved; entrepreneur and manager Gian Luca Sghedoni, the current CEO of Litokol and former Kerakoll chief; Ettore Riello, an entrepreneur and manager partner of the Verona, Italy-based Riello dynasty of industrialists, and Luca Poggi, named partner and founder of law firm Poggi & Associati, among others.
In July, Corinaldesi told WWD that he expected LuisaViaRoma’s business to log sales of between 120 million euros and 140 million euros in 2027.
The first signs of turmoil for LuisaViaRoma emerged in July 2025, when the e-tailer revealed plans to streamline its business operations by shutting its unit and office in Milan.
LuisaViaRoma’s former controlling shareholder, the Italian private equity fund Style Capital, exited the business after four years in December, leaving the multibrand e-tailer in the hands of CEO Andorlini, who gained control of 40 percent of LuisaViaRoma.
The LuisaViaRoma business was established by Luisa Jaquin, who opened a small boutique on Florence’s Via Roma in 1929, starting the company’s retail journey.