Luxury fashion brand Prada to simplify control structure

Prada, the Italian group that owns fashion luxury labels Prada and Miu Miu, will merge its controlling holding company with its owner to simplify the group’s control structure, it said on Wednesday morning.

Prada Holding, the controlling holding company with about 80 per cent of the shares, is in turn wholly owned by Gipafin Sàrl. The two will be merged by the end of the year, the company expects. After the consolidation, Prada Holding will cease to exist and Gipafin Sàrl will be renamed Prada Holding Sàrl, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange in Hong Kong, where its shares are listed.

The move is aimed at simplifying the firm’s structure and will not affect the Prada group’s operations, the statement said.

Fashion designer Miuccia Prada and her husband, the firm’s chief executive Patrizio Bertelli, are under investigation by Italian tax authorities, they confirmed last month.

They made a voluntary disclosure to Italian tax authorities last December, prompting an examination into past tax filings by the couple regarding foreign-owned companies.