The Carlyle Group Closes Golden Goose Deluxe Brand Acquisition

Milan/Venice, 7 March, 2017 – Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Italian luxury lifestyle fashion company, Golden Goose Deluxe Brand from a pool of investors led by Ergon Capital Partners. The purchase agreement was first announced on 2nd February, 2017. Equity for the transaction came from Carlyle Europe Partners IV (CEP IV), a European-focused, upper-mid market buyout fund, and Carlyle Asia Growth Partners V.

Established in 2000 with headquarters in Venice, Italy, Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is a fast-growing high-end lifestyle fashion company with strong global positioning in the luxury sneaker market.

Carlyle will drive the Company’s next expansion phase with Giorgio Presca, appointed as new CEO, effective from today. With over 25 years of experience in fashion, apparel and footwear sectors, Mr Presca joins the company from Geox, where he has served as CEO since 2012, managing the company’s reorganization and definition of brand and marketing strategies. Mr Presca has also held the position of Citizen of Humanity’s CEO, after several experiences, such as President of VF Jeanswear International, Brand General Manager at Diesel Group and Brand Director EMEA at Levis Strauss & Co. His early career includes Marketing positions at Nordica and Lotto.

Marco De Benedetti, Managing Director and Co-Head, Carlyle Europe Partners, said: “We believe in Golden Goose’s strong growth potential and we think that Giorgio will build on the momentum already underway towards Golden Goose Deluxe Brand’s future, thanks to his deep roots in the fashion and footwear industry and a successful history of brand management, retail excellence and international business development experience.”

Giorgio Presca, Golden Goose Deluxe Brand’s new CEO, added: “Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is an outstanding brand with an exciting unique creative vision and a company with solid management pillars. I am delighted to join the Golden Goose Deluxe Brand team and look forward to building the brand as we move forward with the talented team in the company.”

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For more information:

The Carlyle Group:

Marina Riva- Federico Steiner, Barabino & Partners
Tel:+39 02.72.02.35.35
Email: m.riva@barabino.it: f.steiner@barabino.it

Catherine Armstrong
Tel: +44 (0) 207 894 1632
Email: catherine.armstrong@carlyle.com

About Golden Goose Deluxe Brand

Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is a leading Italian designer of contemporary luxury casual wear and accessories, mostly known globally for its Golden Goose sneakers brand. Since its foundation, the Company’s development strategy has been built on a high-end market positioning, proposing a contemporary, unique and consistent style over time with distinctive brand identity supported by a highly selective wholesale and retail distribution network in key markets such as Italy, UK, France, USA, Japan, Korea and more recently China. Golden Goose Deluxe Brand develops total look collections for both men and women and caters to the needs of quality-conscious sophisticated customers in search of a lifestyle brand that offers distinctiveness and differentiation from the mainstream global luxury brands. Headquartered in Venice, Italy, the company generated in 2016 sales in excess of 100 million Euros of which ~60% realized outside Italy and with a growth rate of ~30% on the previous year. Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is distributed worldwide through a network of over 700 exclusive multi-brand stores and franchisees, along with 8 directly operated flagship stores.

For more information on Golden Goose visit www.goldengoosedeluxebrand.com

About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $158 billion of assets under management across 281 investment vehicles as of December 31, 2016. Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, many of whom are public pensions. Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Market Strategies and Investment Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,600 people in 35 offices across six continents.

Web: www.carlyle.com
Videos: www.youtube.com/onecarlyle 
Tweets: www.twitter.com/onecarlyle
Podcasts: www.carlyle.com/about-carlyle/market-commentary

 About Carlyle Europe Partners
Carlyle Europe Partners (CEP) seeks to invest in mid-sized companies in Europe across a wide range of sectors and industries, accelerate their growth and support their efforts to expand internationally. The current fund is now the fourth in the CEP franchise. The fund is managed by a team of 39 investment professionals across five offices.  In total, over 140 investors from 35 countries have made commitments to the CEP IV fund.

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