The Prada Group has agreed to buy rival Versace from the U.S. luxury group Capri Holdings in a deal valuing the Milan fashion house at 1.25 billion euros ($1.4 billion.)

Italian fashion house Prada has announced that it has bought fellow Italian designer fashion brand Versace for €1.25 billion. ($1.38 billion).

For decades, the fiercely independent Prada SpA Chairman Patrizio Bertelli talked about the need for Italian fashion houses to acquire size and scale to take on sprawling industry behemoths like LVMH and Kering SA and also avoid being gobbled up by them.