According to the study “Fashion & Luxury Private Equity and Investors Survey 2025” by the international consulting firm Deloitte, 90 percent of investors will continue to invest in the fashion and luxury sector. However, eight out of ten respondents assume that tariffs have negative effects on the market. North America (35 percent), Europe (33 percent) and Asia (29 percent) are the regions that are most affected by the increasing trade barriers.
The study was carried out worldwide with 60 private equity investors and over 114 companies. These companies work in the areas of clothing and accessories, watches and jewelry, cosmetics and perfume, luxury cars, luxury hotels, private jets, cruises, furniture, yachts and luxury restaurants.
The number of takeovers in the industry in 2024 drops by a quarter
The number of mergers and acquisitions in the sector is declining. In 2024, 333 degrees were recorded worldwide (25 fewer than in 2023). The first half of 2025 confirmed the downward trend with 162 transactions. This is a decline of 14 percent compared to the 188 transactions in the same period of 2024.
“After years of strong recovery according to Covid, the companies in the fashion and luxury industry recorded a slight decline in sales (two percent) and lower profitability (2.1 percent). This is mainly due to the weakening of the Chinese market and the difficulties in the luxury car segment,” says the report.
“Despite a macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, which is still characterized by great uncertainty, the fashion and luxury sector continues to attract investors’ interest,” emphasized Elio Milantoni, Senior Partner Mergers and Acquisitions at Deloitte Advisory. 92 percent of the funds therefore check investments in the industry, but with greater caution than in the previous year. The most important areas of interest are cosmetics and perfume (25 percent), the production of clothing and accessories (24 percent), retail with clothing and accessories (14 percent) and furniture (eleven percent). Over half of the investors focus their strategies on medium -sized companies with the aim of promoting a consolidation process in the industry.
“The latest macroeconomic developments have created uncertainty and complexity for the luxury companies,” explained Federico Bazzani, partner at Deloitte Advisory. “This has negatively affected both sales and profitability.” The decline is still strongly influenced by the Chinese market, although the Middle East and India are increasingly attracting the interest of investors. It is therefore of crucial importance for companies in the industry to find new positioning and differentiation strategies. In this way you could compensate for the amount of quantity and reactivate the sales channels.
The influence of artificial intelligence on the investment strategies grows, sustainability remains important.
According to the investors, the areas of customer experience (28 percent), marketing and sales (24 percent), security (19 percent) as well as production and supply chain (13 percent) are most affected by the increasing use of artificial intelligence.
Sustainability is still an important factor for the investment strategies. In particular, the cosmetics and perfume sector (27 percent) keep the innovations in the ESG area, according to the investors.
This article was used with digital tools translated.
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