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PARIS, France — Salvatore Ferragamo SpA Chairman Ferruccio Ferragamo ruled out selling a stake in the luxury shoemaker founded by his father amid speculation that the company could attract interest from LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.
“There isn’t any hypothesis to sell a stake,” Ferragamo, 68, said in an interview in Cernobbio, Italy. “We weren’t approached by anybody.”
Ferragamo, founded in Florence in 1927, is the most likely takeover candidate among mid-sized listed Italian luxury companies, according to Exane BNP Paribas. The shoemaker may be on LVMH’s radar, according to Berenberg Bank, after the world’s largest luxury-goods company this week agreed to distribute its stake in Hermes International SCA to shareholders, signaling that it may have to seek takeovers elsewhere.
“It’s not a matter of price, it’s a question of love for our company,” Ferragamo said. “The family is united.”
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Ferragamo also said he sees a “positive” second half of the year as his company opens and modernizes stores.
The shares rose 8 cents to 22.81 at 1:12 p.m. in Milan, valuing the company at 3.8 billion euros ($4.9 billion).
The shoemaker doesn’t plan to change its strategy in Russia, the chairman said. The U.S. and European Union have imposed sanctions on some Russian companies and banks following unrest in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated last month with a food-import ban, stoking bets the crisis will worsen and exacerbate an economic downturn that threatens Russia with its first recession since 2009.
By Andrew Roberts, Sonia Sirletti; Celeste Perri, Paul Jarvis, David Risser.