The Chinese group Shandong Ruyi became the majority shareholder of SMCP (Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot and Fursac) in March 2016 in order to “accompany international development”. But you could lose control.
March 31, 2016: Shandong Ruyi joins the company
The French champion of “affordable luxury”, which originally brought together two brands founded by sisters Evelyne Chétrite (Maje, 1984) and Judith Milgrom (Sandro, 1998), will change hands in 2016.
SMCP, which has been majority-owned by management and the US fund KKR since 2013, will be owned by Shandong Ruyi Technology Group, one of the largest textile manufacturers in China under the leadership of Yafu Qiu.
June to October 2017: IPO
The French group puts a minority share of its capital on the Paris Stock Exchange. On the eve of the initial listing in Paris on October 20, 2017, SMCP is valued at 2.01 billion euros. The price of the share is set at 22 euros. In the following year, SMCP exceeded the symbolic mark of one billion euros in sales in 2018, thanks in particular to the markets in the USA and Asia.
September 2018: Topsoho takes out EUR 250 million bond
On September 21, European TopSoho, the financial vehicle controlled by Shandong Ruyi SMCP and registered in Luxembourg, borrowed € 250 million, a debt convertible into securities equal to approximately 37 percent of SMCP’s share capital . The creditors are the BlackRock, Carlyle, Anchorage, Boussard and Gavaudan funds, which are combined in the GLASS unit.
2019-2020: Bad sales and Covid
The unrest in Hong Kong weighs on SMCP’s Asian sales. The group corrected one of its financial targets downwards at the end of 2019 and the price on the stock market crashed. The share is worth less than 10 euros at the end of 2019. The spread of the coronavirus epidemic, first in China and then worldwide, is causing sales to drop by more than 20 percent in 2020. The group takes out two state-guaranteed loans (PGE) for almost 200 million euros.
October 2020: turning point in Asia
The company unveils a strategic plan that includes closing around 50 sales outlets in France to focus on Asia, which is set to become the largest market by 2025, and increase sales over the internet.
July 2021: Crimes against humanity investigated
SMCP is one of four groups targeted in an investigation into fraud and crimes against humanity launched in France in late June. Shandong Ruyi has been accused by an Australian NGO of having set up factories in Xinjiang since 2010, where Uyghurs are forced to work. For its part, the French group assured that its supply chain was “completely independent of that of its majority shareholder”.
October 2021: maturity of the bond
Topsoho creditors announced that they had acquired 29 percent of SMCP’s capital to make up for a default on the bond. They say they don’t want to take control of the group, but rather sell it to a third party to pay off.
They also call for a general assembly to be called to remove all members representing European Topsoho and Shandong Ruyi from the board.
December 2021: General meeting called
The Paris Commercial Court approves the creditors of the Chinese owner of SMCP, a shareholders’ meeting will be called by a specially appointed judicial trustee, the date set for January 14, 2022. GLAS reveals that in early December, European Topsoho sold 16 percent of the capital of SMCP – which is not affected by the bond – to a company based in the British Virgin Islands and whose sole shareholder until July last year … the boss’s daughter from Shandong Ruyi, Chenran Qiu, was. The whole thing for the sum of one euro.
January 6: Lawsuit by Topsoho
European Topsoho is suing SMCP and GLAS in the Paris Commercial Court and requests that the general meeting of shareholders be postponed. The hearing is scheduled for Monday January 10th. (AFP)
This article was previously published on FashionUnited.fr. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ.