Zalando and ABOUT YOU agreed to crew as much as higher serve the wants of shoppers and companions by way of their mixed and distinct B2C and B2B choices, enabling the mixed group to cowl a bigger share of the European trend and way of life e-commerce market. The businesses have entered right into a definitive enterprise mixture settlement below which Zalando intends to submit a voluntary public tender supply 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 robust cultural match, entrepreneurial monitor report and extremely complementary capabilities. Topic to the assessment of the supply doc to be printed by Zalando, the administration board and supervisory board of ABOUT YOU intend to advocate shareholders to simply accept the supply. ABOUT YOU’s three founders and administration board members Sebastian Betz, Tarek Müller and Hannes Wiese are dedicated to accepting the supply 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 p.c of ABOUT YOU’s share capital, by way of accepting the general public supply or individually, to Zalando.
Zalando will purchase ABOUT YOU in a strategic merger to boost B2C and B2B choices, protecting extra of Europe’s trend 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 season 2025, pending regulatory approval.
Zalando presents €6.50/share, a 107 per cent premium on the 3-month common value.
“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 in addition play into Zalando’s ecosystem technique, communicated in March 2024, to construct a pan-European trend and way of life e-commerce ecosystem round two development vectors, B2C and B2B, to deepen relationships with clients and companions. The transaction comes with compelling worth creation alternatives that the 2 corporations, working in the identical trade, can generate by collaborating in a variety of areas comparable 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 predicted to develop GMV and income till 2028 at a 5-year compound annual development charge 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 improve 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 trend market in the long run than beforehand focused.
Within the B2C development vector, including ABOUT YOU will allow Zalando to implement a dual-brand technique. Every model will retain its distinct id whereas leveraging synergies in logistics, cost infrastructure and business collaboration. This strategic transfer will enable the mixed entity to offer tailor-made and separate purchasing experiences, successfully assembly the distinctive wants and preferences of their clients.
Zalando appeals to trend lovers and is subsequently extra brand-led, differentiating itself by providing an unmatched choice of greater than 6,000 way of life manufacturers to its greater than 50 million clients. It excites clients with the very best high quality purchasing expertise, relating to each a part of the shopper journey: a high-quality model assortment, digital expertise, sustainable and inclusive model decisions, in addition to personalised and localized comfort. Zalando can be constructing on these high-quality relationships to develop its position in clients’ way of life journeys by turning classes like Sports activities and Children & Household into charming experiences, and by integrating content material and information into commerce to supply personalised inspiration and leisure.
ABOUT YOU appeals to a younger trend viewers and is subsequently extra style-led. It celebrates particular person kinds, units traits and combines purchasing with leisure by way of dwell occasions, interactive codecs and social media hosts to create a vibrant trend neighborhood. With a community of over 27,000 content material creators, ABOUT YOU presents over 12 million energetic clients entry to 700,000 kinds from famend manufacturers, progressive producers, personal labels and distinctive celeb collections. Its collaborations with worldwide abilities from sports activities, music, movie and modelling have led to 119 unique collections for its style-conscious clients.
Within the B2B development vector, ABOUT YOU’s SCAYLE software program unit will completely complement Zalando’s e-commerce working system ZEOS which allows 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 by way of numerous on-line marketplaces. SCAYLE is now extending Zalando’s providing with a bespoke answer to serve manufacturers’ and retailers’ personal webshops and apps, typically an important gross sales channels for a lot of manufacturers, even for those which might be working multi-channel companies.
SCAYLE is without doubt one of the fastest-growing Software program-as-a-Service commerce platforms globally and already extremely worthwhile. SCAYLE presents tailor-made enterprise software program options for manufacturers and retailers throughout verticals, with an particularly great amount of options for the style and way of life segments serving greater than 200 retailers 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 really distinctive, with two distinct and unbiased B2C companies serving the particular wants of their clients. On the similar time, the complementary strengths of the B2B companies will seamlessly align to ship a complete and optimized supply for shoppers in logistics, software program and providers.”
The deal may even assist the joint group allow constructive change for a extra sustainable and inclusive way forward for the style and way of life trade, helped by its bigger scale and better relevance for patrons and types. Each corporations share a long-standing partnership on this area and have collectively launched a number of initiatives to advertise accountability throughout the trend trade, comparable 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 clients to make knowledgeable purchasing selections.
The supposed public tender supply by Zalando of 6.50 euros per ABOUT YOU share represents a premium of 12 p.c to the median analyst goal value of 5.80 euros and a premium of 107 p.c to ABOUT YOU’s 3-month volume-weighted common share value on 10 December 2024, enabling realisation of great worth for present ABOUT YOU shareholders. The transaction is predicted to shut in summer season of 2025, topic to acquiring related regulatory approvals.
The supply doc and different data pertaining to Zalando’s supposed public tender supply shall be ready in accordance with the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (Wertpapiererwerbs- und Übernahmegesetz – WpÜG). The supply doc shall be printed following approval by the German Federal Monetary Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
The supply doc, as soon as accredited for publication by BaFin, and additional data shall 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.
