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Bettencourt family-owned Téthys Invest acquires stake in Sézane
The appealing Sézane dossier has been circulating among investors for several months, with no lack of candidates, as detailed on FashionNetwork.com last April. The ready-to-wear brand created by Morgane Sézalory has finally found a new financial partner and saw the arrival of Téthys Invest as a shareholder. The investment holding company owned by the Bettencourt-Meyers family, a subsidiary of Téthys, the majority shareholder of the global beauty giant L'Oréal, is acquiring a minority stake in the flamboyant French fashion label. The holding company, which has previously made investments in education and health, is now making its first foray into fashion.
The amount of the financial transaction has not been disclosed, but the arrival of the new shareholder in the company will be carried out together with General Atlantic, a shareholder since 2018, which is also participating in this financing round, according to Téthys Invest.
Sézane was founded in 2013 by Morgane Sézalory and Thibault Lougnon, who were joined by Corentin Petit (who has since left the brand). In France, Sézane is a successful example of DNBs, or digitally native brands, that have managed to develop their business from their online community.
In 2015, the American investment fund Summit Partners took a minority stake estimated at around 20%. This stake was acquired three years later by private equity giant General Atlantic. According to several media reports, last April the fund held 45% of the capital of the Paris-based company.
Founded online, Sézane joined October, its menswear version, in 2016. Both labels are currently operating via their e-commerce sites as well as their physical points of sale.
Sézane boasts 12 physical points of sale, with "apartments" in Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Lille, Bordeaux, New York, London and Madrid. The label will also soon open a new location in Paris, at 33 rue des Blancs Manteaux in the Marais district.
Sézane also conducts "tours" with pop-up stores in cities in France, Europe and the United States to test its potential in other cities where its online performance is satisfactory. On September 15, the brand will set up its second ephemeral store in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, the October label has a boutique and a corner at Le Bon Marché in Paris, as well as spaces in Sézane stores in the seventh and seventeenth arrondissements of the French capital.
Sézane, a profitable and committed company, certified as B-Corp, generates more than 80% of its sales online and does not disclose its turnover but claims to be growing significantly. Les Echos, a French newspaper, reported a turnover of €250 million for the year 2021 following the entry of Téthys Invest in the company's capital.
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