Alexander McQueen, one of the Gucci group's acclaimed designers, has been making shoes for Puma since 2005.
PPR's French retail businesses have far lower profit margins and less promising growth prospects than Gucci Group and Puma.
PPR, which now owns 68% of the Gucci Group, is obliged to make an offer for all the shares it does not own already.
Gucci's Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole (the latter is a member of the board of forbes.com) have big plans to further build Gucci group's menswear revenues.
Louboutin sued YSL, a unit of Gucci Group, on April 7, 2011 after the fashion house announced plans to sell a line of monocolored shoes, including red shoes with red soles.
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CFAO's recent return on assets, of over 20% a year, he points out, far exceeds that of the Gucci Group, at around 7%, mainly because PPR paid so much for the latter.
Together they transformed the company, increasing its revenues by 32% a year between 1994 and 2002, and forming the Gucci Group with the acquisition of labels such as Yves Saint Laurent, Boucheron, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen.
While working with Gucci and France Luxury Group, I was in charge of helping the CEO to hire design talent, recruit new employees, public relations, marketing, wholesale and retail sales and licensing.
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This is bad news for companies that rely on free-spending tourists, such as Gucci, a fashion group that this week declared a 97% drop in profits for the three months to April compared with a year earlier (see article).
PPR, a luxury-goods group which owns Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, is reported to have plans to move its entire executive committee to offices in London as soon as this summer.
Mr Ford is even more important at Gucci, where his influence is hard to overstate: even the group's annual report is not allowed out without his approval.
Closer to home, the REIT recently opened the Pier Shops at Caesars in Atlantic City, a 30%-owned joint venture (with Gordon Group Holdings), which includes such prestigious shops as Gucci and Burberry.
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