BINDA GROUP rachète Geneva Watch Group

With the acquisition of Geneva Watch Group the Binda Group aims at reaching total annualized sales revenues in excess of 450 million euros (>665 million dollars) in 2008 and attains a significant strengthening of its presence in the North American market, the largest and most important for watches and jewelry. As a result, the Binda Group forecasts annualized sales revenues in the USA in excess of 200 million dollars in the current calendar year (>135 million euros), around 30% of its total worldwide business. Besides the US operations of Geneva Watch, the Binda Group will also incorporate production units in the Far East with around 1200 employees plus 300 top-notch quality control specialists. The Binda Group‘s brand portfolio is now to add various new licenses, the largest of which is the Kenneth Cole brand, currently one of the top fashion watch brands in U.S. in terms of market share, and the house brand Freestyle, a historic sports-watch brand that is particularly popular among West Coast surfers. This acquisition is part of the Binda Group development plans which target 1 billion euros sales revenues by 2015. We are very pleased with this acquisition that allows our Group to further strengthen its international presence and share competencies with a successful US company , says Marcello Binda, shareholder and co-CEO of the Binda Group with his brother Simone. This latter in turn adds: Combining forces gears us up to compete on equal terms with global category giants and to rise up to the eighth place in the world ranking of watches and jewelry companies . A leap forward which enables us to gain key strategic assets for the development and growth of our Group in terms of know-how and industrial and commercial strength , sums up Gianni Pieraccioni, Group Managing Director. Geneva Watch is to be headed by the newly appointed CEO Jeff Gregg, previously COO and CFO of the same company, reporting to Gianni Pieraccioni. We are very excited about the strengths to be gained by working with such an internationally successful company as Binda and the benefits it will bring to our customers and brands , says Gregg. The acquisition was advised by the M&A specialists Sonenshine & Partners of New York, the legal firm Gibson Dunn of New York and the audit company Deloitte USA of Houston.

( Marcello and Simone Binda) The Binda Group, established in 1906, is the Italian market leader located in Milan and currently considered a benchmark in Europe for watches and jewelry. Headed by the brothers Marcello and Simone Binda, grandsons of the founder, the Binda Group operates in more than 70 markets with approximately 400 employees worldwide, half of whom at the Milan headquarters. The Group ended 2007 with consolidated revenues of 297 million euros and sales of approximately 5 million pieces. It has 8 subsidiaries (Binda Italia, Binda USA, Binda Brazil, Binda UK, Binda Deutschland, Binda España, Binda Portugal and Binda China), with 50 distributors, to serve over 12,000 retail stores worldwide and 47 Breil Milano monobrand boutiques and Group multibrand stores under the B-Hip! name. The Binda Group has 3 main business units: watches, jewelry and leather. It produces and distributes its own brands, such as Breil Milano, Breil Tribe, Wyler Genève and Details, and brands under license such as D&G Time and Jewels, Moschino CheapandChic Watches and Jewels, Ducati and Ducati Corse Watches. It also distributes the brands Seiko, Lorus and Paris Hilton watches in Italy and the Glam Rock brand of watches in Italy, the USA and Canada. Geneva Watch Group, established in 1974 and headquartered in New York, is today one of the leading US-based company in the design, production and distribution of watches and clocks with around 1800 employees worldwide and locations in New York, Michigan, Hong Kong and China. Geneva Watch has been owned by the private equity fund Heritage Partners of Boston since 1999. During the year ending March 2008, the Group recorded net revenues of $ 192 million (124 million euros at current exchange rate) and sold around 25 million watches. Geneva Watch employs approximately 300 people in the US and 1,500 in the Far East. The company has two business units - Status and Advance. Status produces and distributes licensed brands (Kenneth Cole New York, Kenneth Cole Reaction, Tommy Bahama, Betsey Johnson, BCBG Maxazria, Ted Baker London, Mexx and Speedo) and its own brand Freestyle. Advance instead serves major retailing chains in North America and has over the years become a center of excellence for customer service, demonstrated day after day by its ability to serve thousands of retailers with maximum precision and punctuality.
 
The Group ended 2007 with consolidated sales revenues of 297 million euros and sales of approximately 5 million pieces. It has 8 subsidiaries (Binda Italia, Binda USA, Binda Brazil, Binda UK, Binda Deutschland, Binda España, Binda Portugal and Binda China), with 50 distributors, to serve over 12,000 retail outlets worldwide.