Zalando and ABOUT YOU agreed to staff as much as higher serve the wants of consumers and companions by means of their mixed and distinct B2C and B2B choices, enabling the mixed group to cowl a bigger share of the European vogue and life-style e-commerce market. The businesses have entered right into a definitive enterprise mixture settlement below which Zalando intends to submit a voluntary public tender provide to amass as much as 100% of ABOUT YOU’s share capital.
The administration board and the supervisory board of ABOUT YOU welcome the strategic transaction, which brings collectively two founder-led groups with a powerful cultural match, entrepreneurial observe document and extremely complementary capabilities. Topic to the evaluation of the provide doc to be revealed by Zalando, the administration board and supervisory board of ABOUT YOU intend to suggest shareholders to simply accept the provide. ABOUT YOU’s three founders and administration board members Sebastian Betz, Tarek Müller and Hannes Wiese are dedicated to accepting the provide and persevering with their profitable work of their present roles.
Main ABOUT YOU shareholders Otto Group, Otto Household, HEARTLAND and the ABOUT YOU Administration entered into binding agreements to promote their ABOUT YOU shares, representing about 73 % of ABOUT YOU’s share capital, by means of accepting the general public provide or individually, to Zalando.
Zalando will purchase ABOUT YOU in a strategic merger to boost B2C and B2B choices, protecting extra of Europe’s vogue market.
ABOUT YOU’s founders and key shareholders again the deal.
The partnership targets €100 million (~$105 million) annual EBIT synergies and plans to shut by summer time 2025, pending regulatory approval.
Zalando affords €6.50/share, a 107 per cent premium on the 3-month common worth.
“Redefining fashion and lifestyle shopping by creating the best possible experience for customers and partners has always driven both our teams. I’m excited about how together we’ll be able to cover a larger share of the fashion and lifestyle market,” mentioned Robert Gentz, co-CEO and co-founder of Zalando. “In B2C, we can offer customers and brands distinct and rich shopping experiences. In B2B, combining our complementary software capabilities, Tradebyte and SCAYLE, will create an even more advanced e-commerce operating system that enables brands and retailers to manage their multi-channel business across Europe and beyond.”
ABOUT YOU’s operations add scale and complementary capabilities, and likewise play into Zalando’s ecosystem technique, communicated in March 2024, to construct a pan-European vogue and life-style e-commerce ecosystem round two progress vectors, B2C and B2B, to deepen relationships with prospects and companions. The transaction comes with compelling worth creation alternatives that the 2 corporations, working in the identical business, can generate by collaborating in a variety of areas corresponding to B2B, logistics, funds and business collaboration. In the long run, Zalando targets vital Group EBIT synergies of round 100 million euros each year.
Underpinning administration’s conviction within the worth creation of this transaction, Zalando is confirming its medium-term outlook additionally for the mixed group. Zalando, together with ABOUT YOU, is anticipated to develop GMV and income till 2028 at a 5-year compound annual progress price of between 5% and 10%. The mixed firm expects an adjusted EBIT margin in 2028 within the hall of 6% to eight%, yielding a big enhance in absolute revenue by making a mixed group at a bigger scale. Collectively, Zalando and ABOUT YOU intention to cowl a bigger share of the 450-billion-euro European vogue market in the long run than beforehand focused.
Within the B2C progress vector, including ABOUT YOU will allow Zalando to implement a dual-brand technique. Every model will retain its distinct identification whereas leveraging synergies in logistics, cost infrastructure and business collaboration. This strategic transfer will enable the mixed entity to supply tailor-made and separate procuring experiences, successfully assembly the distinctive wants and preferences of their prospects.
Zalando appeals to vogue fans and is due to this fact extra brand-led, differentiating itself by providing an unmatched collection of greater than 6,000 life-style manufacturers to its greater than 50 million prospects. It excites prospects with the absolute best high quality procuring expertise, relating to each a part of the client journey: a high-quality model assortment, digital expertise, sustainable and inclusive model selections, in addition to personalised and localized comfort. Zalando can be constructing on these high-quality relationships to broaden its position in prospects’ life-style journeys by turning classes like Sports activities and Youngsters & Household into charming experiences, and by integrating content material and knowledge into commerce to supply personalised inspiration and leisure.
ABOUT YOU appeals to a younger vogue viewers and is due to this fact extra style-led. It celebrates particular person types, units tendencies and combines procuring with leisure by means of reside occasions, interactive codecs and social media hosts to create a vibrant vogue neighborhood. With a community of over 27,000 content material creators, ABOUT YOU affords over 12 million energetic prospects entry to 700,000 types from famend manufacturers, modern producers, non-public labels and distinctive celeb collections. Its collaborations with worldwide skills from sports activities, music, movie and modelling have led to 119 unique collections for its style-conscious prospects.
Within the B2B progress vector, ABOUT YOU’s SCAYLE software program unit will completely complement Zalando’s e-commerce working system ZEOS which permits manufacturers and retailers to handle their multi-channel enterprise throughout Europe inside one unified platform, consisting of logistics infrastructure, software program and repair choices, no matter whether or not they happen on or off the Zalando platform.
Zalando’s Tradebyte software program unit is already serving to retailers and types promote their merchandise through varied on-line marketplaces. SCAYLE is now extending Zalando’s providing with a bespoke resolution to serve manufacturers’ and retailers’ personal webshops and apps, usually a very powerful gross sales channels for a lot of manufacturers, even for those which can be operating multi-channel companies.
SCAYLE is among the fastest-growing Software program-as-a-Service commerce platforms globally and already extremely worthwhile. SCAYLE affords tailor-made enterprise software program options for manufacturers and retailers throughout verticals, with an particularly great amount of options for the style and life-style segments serving greater than 200 outlets throughout Europe and North America.
“We are thrilled to team up with so many brilliant entrepreneurial colleagues and together move the success stories of Zalando and ABOUT YOU to the next level,” mentioned Tarek Müller, the co-founder and co-CEO of ABOUT YOU. “This transaction creates one thing actually distinctive, with two distinct and unbiased B2C companies serving the precise wants of their prospects. On the identical time, the complementary strengths of the B2B companies will seamlessly align to ship a complete and optimized provide for shoppers in logistics, software program and providers.”
The deal may even assist the joint group allow optimistic change for a extra sustainable and inclusive way forward for the style and life-style business, helped by its bigger scale and better relevance for patrons and types. Each corporations share a long-standing partnership on this subject and have collectively launched a number of initiatives to advertise duty inside the vogue business, corresponding to FASHION LEAP FOR CLIMATE and FASHION AGAINST FASCISM. Sooner or later, Zalando and ABOUT YOU may even intensify their joint efforts to empower their prospects to make knowledgeable procuring selections.
The supposed public tender provide by Zalando of 6.50 euros per ABOUT YOU share represents a premium of 12 % to the median analyst goal worth of 5.80 euros and a premium of 107 % to ABOUT YOU’s 3-month volume-weighted common share worth on 10 December 2024, enabling realisation of great worth for current ABOUT YOU shareholders. The transaction is anticipated to shut in summer time of 2025, topic to acquiring related regulatory approvals.
The provide doc and different info pertaining to Zalando’s supposed public tender provide will probably be ready in accordance with the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (Wertpapiererwerbs- und Übernahmegesetz – WpÜG). The provide doc will probably be revealed following approval by the German Federal Monetary Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
The provide doc, as soon as accredited for publication by BaFin, and additional info will probably be accessible on the next web site: www.the-perfect-fit.de. Zalando is being suggested by J.P. Morgan as monetary advisor, Sullivan & Cromwell as authorized counsel, and FGS World as communications advisor. ABOUT YOU is being suggested on this transaction by Deutsche Financial institution and White & Case.
Notice: The headline, insights, and picture of this press launch might have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion employees; the remainder of the content material stays unchanged.
