Cerruti sold, new designer

Fashion house Cerruti has been acquired by private equity firm MatlinPatterson from bankrupt Italian company Fin.part for an undisclosed amount. MatlinPatterson, a $3.8 billion fund, immediately appointed Nicholas Andreas Taralis as creative director. The brand’s new chief executive, Philippe Cleach, is a lawyer who has worked for Cerruti for more than 20 years. Last year, Italian menswear firm Manifattura Paolini announced its purchase of 82 percent of the fashionhouse form €112 million, but the transaction was annulled following Michele Paolini’s arrest for price fixing shares of Italian cosmetics company Schiapparelli. WWD reports that the bidding war relaunched and Matlin Patterson, who is said to have bid on the company in the first round, resubmitted its offer. Whether the transaction includes Hitman, Cerruti’s Italian production arm, is unclear.

Fin.part bought a 51 percent stake in Cerruti in 2000 for $70 million, simultaneously buying Frette, Maska and Moncler. The small Italian luxury group, which was founded in 1996, declared bankruptcy last October. During Fin.part’s reign, Cerruti went through a number of designers, including Roberto Menichetti. The company’s newest designer, Canadian-born Taralis, previously worked for Hedi Sliman at Dior Homme and is based in Paris. In 2004 he launched his signature collection in Paris. He has not been available for comment.