Fashion Brand Burani Facing Trouble

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Dec 30th 2009 at 7:01PM

The latest luxury fashion line to hit trouble is Burani. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Italian brand is trying to reorganize and has put a holding company that controls a minority stake of Mariella Burani Fashion Group under liquidation. The founder, Walter Burani, says the company will not file for bankruptcy protection and is not facing liquidation.

The brand, which sells high-end women's fashion failed to reach an agreement with banks over a nearly 500 million euro debt earlier this month. This move has led to talk that Burani may be unable to pay off its debts. High-end fashion has taken a lot of hits over 2009 and Burani has been struggling for a while. Back in August Mariella Burani Fashion Group reported a group net loss of 142.1 million euros ($204 million) versus a net income of 4 million euros last year, including significant asset writedowns and accruals. Revenues fell to 246.1 million euros compared to 325.4 million euros last year.

Bloomberg reports that Walter Burani is in talks with Gulf Finance & Investment over setting up a a potential 50 million euro escrow account in order to prove to creditors that it has enough money for a planned capital increase as part of the debt reorganization

Tags: fashion, italy, mariella burani, MariellaBurani