French fashion company Pierre Cardin said on Monday it was negotiating with two Chinese firms to sell certain licenses in China.
The 86-year-old designer said it has been negotiating to sell textile and accessory licenses in China to two Chinese firms for 200 million euros (280 million U.S. dollars).
A spokesman with the company said the two Chinese firms were private shoemakers Jiansheng Trading Ltd. and Cardanro.
According to company sources, the sale to the Chinese companies of 32 licenses had been in talks for the past two months and a deal would be signed "imminently."
Earlier on Monday, the company denied that it was to sell off to Chinese firms. It said: "This is not about the sales of the Pierre Cardin group. The couturier is in talks with Chinese companies only on the sale of certain licenses in China, as it was in the past for Japan for example."
Pierre Cardin was the first Western fashion designer to hold a fashion show in Beijing in 1979, shortly after China started its reform and opening-up.