Result of many years of collaboration
Anders Holch Povlsen (40), who got his own spot on the Forbes list of fashion billionaires, is buying the shares from a group of investors, including the European Founders Fund (EFF), Holtzbrinck and Tengelmann. Povlsen’s own capital is estimated at two billion euro by Forbes, putting him at 589 on the famous chart for rich people.
”Bestseller and Zalando have been working together very successfully for several years. Anders Holch Povlsen has been following Zalando’s development very closely and he knows our strengths”, says David Schneider, co-founder and managing director of Zalando. Povlsen is now the third largest shareholder of Zalando, following AB Kinnevik (37%) and European Founders fund (18%).
Zalando, founded in 2008, had sales of 1.15 billion euro in 2012 and it says it runs break-even in its home markets (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) since this year. In the first quarter the e-tailer had a sales growth of 74% to 372 million euro and it has grown into one of the most visited fashion sites in the world, with almost fifteen million customers.
