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Source: Four Chinese businessmen to buy stake in Cardin

By Hu Yang (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-11 11:01

A shopper walks by a Pierre Cardin franchise store in Shenyang, Liaoning province on June 30, 2009. [Asianewsphoto]

Four Chinese businessmen will buy an unspecified stake in the French fashion company Pierre Cardin to take over its brand and all business in China, an unnamed source close to the businessmen told China Business News.

Sun Xiaofei, Chen Xiaofei, Pan Changhai and Hong Jianqiao are all from Wenzhou in east China's Zhejing province, which is China's manufacturing base of light industrial products.

The four businessmen flew to France and signed a basket of cooperative deals with Cardin in April this year, the report said. In mid-June, Sun went to France again to negotiate the details of the takeover.

Pan and Hong refused to expound on the plan, saying details about the deal will be announced when Sun, the main negotiator, comes back from France, where he is set to spend about 20 days with the 87-year old designer Pierre Cardin, founder of the fashion giant.

There has been speculation ever since Cardin revealed its intention to sell the brand to Chinese companies. Earlier reports had said two Chinese shoemakers were planning to buy the brand for 200 million euros ($280 millon).

"What is certain is that they will increase their stake in the future," a source with knowledge of the matter told the newspaper, adding that the terms agreed upon by both parties are "better than expected".

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The source said the four businessmen hope to use Cardin's worldwide network - which covers more than 100 countries and regions - to carry out global cooperation. They plan set up the Cardin marketing base in Wenzhou, using their local business connections, according to the report.

Cardin has granted licenses to more than 20 agents in China, a thorny issue the brand's new owners must tackle, the paper said, citing Zou Lisheng, president of Zhejiang's chamber of commerce in Guangdong province, where the four men have been running their businesses.

Ma Jinlong, head of the Wenzhou Economic Association, said the four men are possibly the best candidates for Cardin, who have had many years of experience as agents and own factories and brands.

But there is a long way to go for the Wenzhou businessmen after the takeover, according to Lu Xiao，a marketing expert at Fudan University. "Once stepping out of the ranks of luxury goods, a brand can hardly get back," he said.