Chiara Ferragni, for your companies the accounts (and the money) never add up

The hole, now, is not only virtual (in the sense that Chiara Ferragni, according to an investigation carried out a few weeks ago by the Bonusfinder Italia website, is losing almost 6 thousand followers a day): it’s just that the numbers, after the famous indigestible pandoro, no longer add up. The Ferragni empire, on social media, on the internet, those products with the brand clearly printed on them, the eye with the eyelashes raised upwards, drove young girls and adult women crazy, let alone little girls, is now in decline. Falling. And gossip has nothing to do with it, the breakup with Fedez has nothing to do with it; If anything, the accountant has something to do with it because here, the crisis is one that would worry any company. The Roman newspaper Il Messaggero reported it first, it bounced around the web for a day and a half (like any news regarding the queen of Instagram), it was discussed in chat and it was also material for the economics pages given that, after all, it is not that we are talking about some trifle, there are still six million euros (which are missing), 40% of revenues (which have collapsed) and the new members (which are needed to restore the balance sheets).

ANTITRUST AND PANDORO
The Antitrust, the Christmas cake, the charity, the scandal, planetary to boot, Chiara in tears on her channels: it all started there. And today it ended (so to speak) with Fenice srl, the company that owns the brands Ferragni, the one who is responsible for the licenses connected to it, looking for millions of euros, you are in fact, perhaps not to stay afloat but almost, whose financing could come from the opening of its share base (aaa, new partners wanted) , with a prospect of further losses, between one and three million euros, between now and 2027, estimated (not certain, agreed, but not a good prospect all the same) by the internal consultants.

The Balocco affair (but not only that, it spread like wildfire) turned out to be a blow, let’s be honest. Because if the damage to one’s image is not (yet) quantifiable, the damage to one’s wallet is. At least in part. At least if you consider that until six months ago companies were competing to get a post, half a comma, a quote in a mini-video by Ferragni, and now his revenue is about half that. A question of equity, but of “equity funds”: that is, those financial investments made to bring in new capital. La Fenice srl (which employs thirty people) is controlled by an investment company called Alchimia and which holds 39.9% of the shares (the others are divided between the Sisterhood which owns 32.5%, the ‘Esuriens which has 13.7% and Ni srl which can count on the rest of the cake): if exactly one year ago, in June 2023, Fenice srl was valued at 75 million euros, now, which we are almost at May 2024, the situation is much less rosy (in spite of, or perhaps precisely because of, the “Pink Christmas” which is the basis of all this cancan). The sponsors who have left, the contracts terminated, the broken relationships with very solid companies such as Coca Cola or Safilo or Pigna: the Ferragni company is clearly in difficulty. Yet if on the one hand the shareholding picture has not changed by a decimal point (for the moment), on the other hand to think that it is the shareholders themselves who are putting a patch on it is at least unlikely.

POTENTIAL INVESTORS
For this reason, the names of Francesco Trapani (Vam investment) and Marco Bizzarri (Nessifashion) are circulating among the new, potential investors. We will see. What is certain is that Italy’s number one influencer is going through a bad time (his store in Milan was not fully booked even at the opening of the winter sales). The internet is like this: the first moment you are shared, loved and imitated by the entire network (and perhaps a little more), the next moment you end up forgotten. If it is OK. And here, well, it doesn’t seem to be working.