LuisaViaRoma sold to ATO investor pool in €18.83 million takeover

LuisaViaRoma has been sold to the pool of investors behind ATO SpA, the e-tailer's most recent lessee, with an offer of 18.83 million euros. That figure equals the starting bid a Florence court set for the auction, and no other bidder entered the process.

No rival offer came even from Italian fashion group Arav, the owner of John Richmond and Silvian Heach, which said last October it was actively weighing participation in the competitive sale. The acquisition procedure is expected to close in the next few weeks.

The purchase is being made through LVR Srl, the newco established and promoted by the same investors that already holds the lease on the business, which the Florence Court greenlit in July to keep operations running. LVR Srl is expected to remain the designated entity managing the business.

The consideration breaks down into 4 million euros in cash and 14.8 million euros in assumed liabilities, covering selected bank and employee obligations along with certain tax and social security liabilities. ATO SpA has also proposed a potential 3 million-euro earn-out.

That earn-out would be paid if cumulative EBITDA over the 2026-29 period tops 23 million euros. The offer covers LuisaViaRoma's brands, e-commerce and technology platforms, inventory, customer databases, contracts, goodwill and the FFW subsidiary, which runs its white-label e-commerce services.

Who is leading it

Paolo Corinaldesi, a veteran fashion executive and former chief executive officer of Woolrich and Filson, leads the investor pool and will continue as executive chairman of LVR Srl. Tommaso Maria Andorlini, named LuisaViaRoma's CEO in 2023, keeps that role.

Backing ATO SpA are two branches of the Marzotto family, with Luca and Gaetano Marzotto directly involved. The group also includes Gian Luca Sghedoni, the current CEO of Litokol and former Kerakoll chief, and Ettore Riello, a manager partner of the Riello dynasty of industrialists from Verona.

Luca Poggi, named partner and founder of law firm Poggi & Associati, is among the backers. In July, Corinaldesi told WWD he expected the business to log sales of between 120 million euros and 140 million euros in 2027, the target the earn-out window will test.

How the retailer got here

LuisaViaRoma is a Florence-based luxury retailer that sells designer brands and emerging labels, according to our company page, and its troubles emerged in July 2025, when it revealed plans to streamline operations by shutting its unit and office in Milan.

The company filed in March for a court-supervised “Concordato Semplificato” restructuring and judicial liquidation proceeding, citing macroeconomic headwinds, dented consumer confidence and geopolitical instability. The sale process was conducted within that framework after more than a year of trying to safeguard the ailing business.

Former controlling shareholder Style Capital, the Italian private equity fund, exited after four years in December, leaving the multibrand e-tailer in the hands of Andorlini, who gained control of 40 percent of LuisaViaRoma. The business traces to Luisa Jaquin, who opened a small boutique on Florence's Via Roma in 1929.

The takeover marks a turning point for a retailer that had tried to safeguard its business for more than a year. Its ownership arc ran from a single Via Roma shop, through private equity control, to a court-led auction with a lone bidder at the starting price.

That no second bidder emerged, when Arav had publicly explored the dossier, leaves the pool with the business at the court's opening figure. The earn-out ties part of ATO SpA's commitment to earnings across the next four years, rewarding the cumulative 23 million-euro target.

The asset list shows what a modern luxury e-tailer carries: the technology stack, the customer database, the FFW white-label arm and the employees transferred with the business, all of which move to the new owners alongside the goodwill.

Continuity is the watchword of the deal. The lessee that kept the business running since July steps into outright ownership, Corinaldesi remains executive chairman, and Andorlini stays as chief executive. The management team that steered LuisaViaRoma through restructuring now governs it under new ownership.

The sale lets the business operate beyond the lease arrangement that has held it together since July. What the investors' industrial backgrounds, and the Marzotto family's involvement, deliver for a multibrand e-tailer is still to be shown once the procedure completes.

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Images: Fabio Tempestini/Courtesy of LuisaViaRoma; Courtesy of LuisaViaRoma