E-commerce giant Zalando has entered an agreement to acquire German fashion e-tailer About You to “better serve the needs of customers and partners”. In other words, by acquiring About You, Zalando continues to execute its vision of becoming “a leading European ecosystem for fashion”.
Major About You shareholders (Otto Group, Otto Family, Heartland and current management), which represent 73% of the company’s share capital, have entered into binding agreements to sell their shares by accepting the public offer or separately to Zalando.
Zalando is offering £5.35 (€6.50) per share, which represents a 12% premium on the current stock price and values About You at £906 million (€1.1 billion).
With this acquisition, Zalando will gain access to About You’s operations and add scale capabilities to boost strategic growth.
“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,” said 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.”
Zalando is currently executing its updated strategy to build a pan-European fashion and lifestyle e-commerce ecosystem around its two main growth vectors: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B). This new brand positioning marks a step towards Zalando’s vision of becoming “a leading European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce”.
As part of this, the business debuted its new brand positioning and brand identity in September. In November, Zalando revealed strong growth across all categories, driven by a strong start to the autumn season. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) climbed from £19.3 million (€23 million) to £78 million (€93 million).
“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,” added Tarek Müller, the Co-founder and Co-CEO of About You.
“This transaction creates something truly unique, with two distinct and independent B2C businesses serving the specific needs of their customers. At the same time, the complementary strengths of the B2B businesses will seamlessly align to deliver a comprehensive and optimized offer for clients in logistics, software and services.”
This follows Zalando and About You’s previous partnerships, nodding to the companies’ synergies. About You and Zalando joined forces last year on a “unique collaboration” to form the ‘Fashion Leap For Climate’ initiative. This July, the companies expanded their climate learning platform, inviting 250 of their brand partners to take part.
Launched in 2022, the Fashion Leap For Climate platform supports fashion brands in measuring their carbon footprints and setting targets that align with climate science.
