Vertical M&A in the Italian Fashion Industry

This work focuses on the vertical mergers and acquisitions realized in the Italian fashion industry. According to the articles and reports published by Pambianco News and various local newspapers, Italian companies operating in the fashion industry are involved in an increased number of vertical transactions, especially domestic ones, since 2022. In accordance with the research, the increased number of domestic vertical transactions aims at preserving the know-how of the Italian companies and simultaneously to assist the Italian micro, small and medium enterprises which suffered a lot during the Pandemic of Covid 19. For this reason, this research wants to focus on the vertical mergers and acquisitions carried out in the Italian fashion industry with the aim of understanding whether the number of vertical transactions has increased over the years, particularly since 2022, as stated in various reports and newspaper articles, or if they remain sporadic occurrences. Subsequently it seeks to explore whether these operations have predominantly been domestic or inbound cross-border. Before focusing on the actual analysis of data related to vertical transactions in the Italian fashion industry, this work provides an in-depth exploration of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and of the Italian fashion industry, highlighting not only the significance of this industry for the national economy but also its distinctive characteristics and its relationships with the M&A topic. Subsequently, through the utilization of the Thomson Reuters EIKON software, this study analyzed 844 transactions carried out in the Italian fashion industry in the period between 1987 and the first six months of 2024. Although the number of vertical transactions identified during the analysis is not particularly high, research findings have established that vertical M&A transactions in the Italian fashion industry have increased significantly since 2022 and moreover, more than half of the transactions analyzed has been classified as domestic, since they involve two Italian companies. In the last chapter, this work analyzes a real case study in order to provide a closer and better understanding of the dynamics and implications of a vertical M&A strategy.