Anders Holch Povlsen, owner of Denmark-based fashion group Bestseller and 28% owner of Zalando’s UK rival ASOS, has acquired a 10% stake in Germany-based e-commerce fashion site Zalando, a portfolio company of the Samwer brothers’ Rocket Internet incubator. Povlsen has purchased shares from early-stage stakeholders including the Samwer brothers’ European Founders Found (EFF), Holtzbrinck Ventures, the former corporate venturing unit of Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, and Tengelmann Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Germany-based retail company,who all remain invested in Zalando.
Rubin Ritter, Zalando managing director, said: “This is an important step in the strategic development of our shareholder structure. Anders Holch Povlsen will be a strong and long-term-oriented shareholder and together we want to design the future of fashion e-commerce.”
Zalando’s shareholders include Sweden-based investment company Investment AB Kinnevik (37% stake), which is one of Rocket Internet’s partners, EFF (18%), DST Global (9%), Holtzbrinck Ventures (8%) and Tengelmann Ventures (6%).
Previously, in December 2012, Zalando raised €40.7m ($53.1m) in debt finance from Commerzbank, Sparkasse Mittelthüringen and German government-owned development bank KfW Bankengruppe. In February 2012, Zalando raised an undisclosed amount of investment by selling a 4% stake to DST Global, the venture fund of Russian businessman Yuri Milner.
There is speculation that Zalando may launch an initial public offering soon.