Family business roundup: Kering buys France Croco; Hutchinson Whampoa results

Kering acquires crocodile skin tannery France Croco; Hutchison Whampoa posted strong results.

Kering/France Croco
Kering – formerly PPR – announced on 25 March it has bought a majority stake in crocodile skin tannery France Croco, based in Normandy.

Family businesses like buying other family businesses, particularly in the luxury sector, and the Kering/France Croco deal is a good example of this trend. Kering is controlled by the Pinault family, while France Croco is run by the founding Lewkowicz family, and is currently led by second-gen Dan Lewkowicz who will continue in his role as chief executive.

France Croco produces leather for watchstraps, shoes and handbags. It will now supply to other brands in the Kering stable as well as its existing clients.

Kering declined to disclose the financial details of the deal when approached by CampdenFB.

Hutchison Whampoa
Hutchison Whampoa – owned by Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing – published its 2012 results on 26 March.

The Hong Kong-based conglomerate, which has subsidiaries in ports, property, retail and infrastructure among others, announced a 4% increase in revenues to HK$398 billion (€40.2 billion) up from HK$384 in 2011.

Net profit dropped 53% to HK26.1 billion, but this was due to the effect of its one-off sale of its Singapore port operations in 2011, the company said.

Underlying net profit increased 19% to HK$26.8 billion compared to HK$22.5 billion the previous year.

Li Ka-shing said in a statement: "Our core businesses and operations, which are spread over 52 countries, demonstrated resilience and remained operating growth in the year.”