the french Vente-Privéethe largest giant in the online fashion outlet sector with an annual turnover of 2,000 million euros, is the new owner of the second player in the sector in Europe, the Spanish project which in 2016 turns 10 years old and invoices more than 400 million euros in different countries (Spain, Italy, Mexico and ).
Although there is no official confirmation at the moment, he points out that the purchase has already been communicated internally at Vente Privée and financial companies that confirm the operation and maintain that the official announcement is a matter of hours or days.
For its part, El País has announced that . in Marketing4eCommerce that in the sector It is wise that Privalia was for sale. This is nothing surprising or negative.
It is quite natural in startups such as Privalia, from venture capital funds such as Caixa Capital Risc, Nauta Capital or Insight Venture Partners, that when they reach a state of maturity the objective of these investors is exit the project with benefitsor through a capital increase (which in this case already seemed difficult due to the size of its latest increases), with an IPO or, more simply and directly, with a sale to a third party.
It was known that he was in negotiations both with and with the other great French player, Showroomprivée. In the end, who has Eaten its great European competitor, in a process with many similarities to it, has been Vente-Privée. We tell you in this video:
Vente-Privée buys Privalia: the largest eCommerce operation in Spain
The sale of Privalia will undoubtedly become the largest sale operation of a Spanish eCommerce project in the young history of the sector. The last reference of a “pure” eCommerce (that allows online transactions) was that of , for 80 million euros. Another important sale, but which did not reach that economic level either, was that of infojobsfor 185 million.
Undoubtedly, it is an operation of significant significance in the sector, which, in the absence of details on your part (if there ever is any), will leave significant profits for all the funds that invested in Privalia and, without any type of doubt, to its two founders, Lucas Carne and Jose Manuel Villanueva.
Both seem happy to have closed the operation: “We are excited to join the creator of the internet flash sales business model. This alliance will allow us to accelerate our growth and expand our offer to new sectors, so our partners will benefit.”
If we are guided by the , each of the two founders had a approximate participation of 5.95% of the company’s shareswhich, with this operation, would be valued at around 30 million euros in each case.
Is Privalia worth 500 million?
Privalia founded the sector of online fashion outlets in Spain (although precisely Vente-Privée always accused them of being your spanish copy, because it is true that they had started before. It is by far the great reference in Spain and has strong business in Italy, Brazil and Mexico ().
The last known data of their accounts speak of a turnover of 415 million euros in 2014 and an EBITDA (profit margin before paying taxes, financial expenses and depreciation) 4%. A low margin, normal in a sector focused on price reduction and still on international growth. It has a 28 million registered user databasewhich is brutal, and El Confidencial points out that it would have officially had losses of 126 million due to its corporate divestment in the German Dress for Less.
What is clear is that Vente-Privée has bought that huge user database and the business is up and running that Privalia has in these four countries where Vente-Privée was costing more. In an interview in the past, the director of Vente-Privée complained that it was difficult for him to enter markets such as Spanish or Italian “because they saw it as a French business” (something quite logical, considering that they are indeed French and his name is in French…) and that his goal was to be seen “as a European”.
Prival’s story
Privalia was founded in 2006 by Lucas Carné and José Manuel Villanueva, two entrepreneurs from Barcelona. It had a period of strong growth between 2008 and 2011. They made some attempts to enter the full price market (not just discounts), but it did not work out well for them and they focused on their core business of the online outlet.
It is one of the startups with the longest history in Spain and as entrepreneurs they have been inspiration and support of the breeding ground for the entrepreneurial environment of Barcelona during all these years. In this video from your marketing agency Lucas Carné and José Manuel Villanueva define part of their work philosophy, results-oriented, working hard, but looking for fun:
The future of Vente-Privée and Privalia
Now it’s time to wait for, first, that they make the official announcement and tell what their short-medium term plans are. Privalia has a workforce of 1,000 workers They will certainly be attentive to what may happen. The most logical thing is that the brand is preserved and continues to operate in its reference markets as such.
More movements of Vente-Privée
Actually, the purchase of Privalia It has not been the only movement of importance that the French company has made in recent days. Vente-Privée has also announced the purchase of a majority stake in the Swiss-based company, the country’s leader, co-founded in 2007 by Arthur Dauchez and Laure de Gennes. The founders remain at the head of the company.
The arrival of vente-privee.com in its capital will allow eboutic.ch to accelerate its growth. «Vente-Privéee is THE European reference in the Internet flash sales sector, and this partnership will allow us to accelerate in terms of development”, explains Arthur Dauchez, co-founder and CEO of eboutic.ch.
For his part, Jacques-Antoine Granjon, president and founder of vente-privee.com explains: “This new stage of our development is part of our long-term vision for the company. These approaches are a true human adventure, and we are fortunate to be able to combine the savoir-faire and expertise of vente-privee.com with the radiance of Privalia in two of our key markets, and of eboutic.ch in Switzerland.
This new expansion reinforces the pursuit of our active development in Europe, which began in 2015 with the acquisition of a majority stake in the Belgian company, vente-exclusive. We are very respectful of the work that the founders and leaders of these companies have done and we are very happy to be able to count on their support and experience in the pursuit of our common European adventure.”
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