Guess

Guess is an American clothing and accessories brand. Guess was founded in 1981 by the Marciano brothers.

Guess was one of the first to launch designer jeans for women, and later for men.

History

2023: Buying a stake in a business in the Russian Federation from a Russian partner

American clothing manufacturer and seller Guess consolidated 100% of Russian business by buying 30% of the company from local entrepreneur Vyacheslav Shikulov. The corresponding entry in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRUL) was registered on May 22, 2023. According to the extract, 30% of Hess? Siayes "moved to the European division of the Guess Europe Sagl brand, registered in Switzerland.

Kommersant notes that information about the deal with Shikulov was disclosed in the Guess report for 2022. The documents say that in 2015 the parties entered into a put option, which assumes the right of a Russian partner to realize its 30% in local business and obliges Guess to redeem this stake by December 31, 2025.

American clothing chain Guess bought a stake in business in the Russian Federation from a Russian partner

The carrying amount of the redeemable non-controlling interest attributable to Guess CIS was $9.1 million and $3 million as of each of the financial years ended January 29, 2022 and January 30, 2021, the clothing manufacturer said.

By the end of May 2023, Guess owns 44 stores in Russia and acts as a distributor for wholesale partners. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine did not have a significant impact on the company's work, the report says, since the global company receives no more than 3% of the total income from operations in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. In total, Guess in Russia (Guess CIS) has 44 stores, the total assets in Russia are no more than 2% of the assets of the global company. Mainly they consist of the rights to rent stores, warehouses, furniture and equipment, as well as receivables, follows from the report.

Managing Director of Peregrine Capital Dmitry Gabyshev calls an atypical transaction in the current situation to consolidate business in Russia by an American company. In the absence of an agreement on a put option, it would be possible to assume that Guess's head office, on the contrary, would be interested in transferring the business to a Russian investor, he notes.^[1]

2018: Failed domain reuptake attempt

On April 5, 2018, information appeared that the Forum (formerly the National Arbitration Forum) dismissed the complaint of a well-known clothing manufacturer - Guess, filed against the owner of the domain name G81.com. The company accused the domain owner of cybersquatting on the grounds that Guess has a model of G81 jeans. Moreover, it has existed since 2001, while the domain was acquired by the current owner only in 2004.

In response to the accusations, the domain owner said that he had acquired G81.com, like two other similar domains - g83.com and g87.com, for the purpose of investment and at that time did not know anything about Guess G81 jeans. It was not difficult for him to prove the latter circumstance: as it turned out, G81 models are poorly aware of the existence of gins in Guess itself: in particular, searching for a model on its website leads to the only result - "nothing was found at your request." To finally make sure that the company was dishonest, the domain owner called three Guess stores and even a call center in the United States. And in all cases, his interlocutors reported that they did not know anything about such a product.

In addition, Forum arbitrator David Kreider took into account the background of the relationship between the domain owner G81.com and Guess. Back in 2013, the company made an attempt to buy a domain. But the parties did not agree on the price. After 5 years, Guess probably decided to get the name of interest and without money at all. The calculation did not justify itself: according to Domain Name Wire, arbitrator Kreider considered the company's actions an attempt to re-capture the domain name and mislead the Forum.^[2]

Notes