More corporate news – Page 32
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Adidas to establish a basketball hub in Los Angeles
Adidas has leased the equivalent of 9,940 square meters of office space in downtown Los Angeles, according to The Wall Street Journal, apparently to establish a hub for its basketball operations in the U.S., which are currently still based at the company’s North American head office in Portland, Oregon. The ...
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StockX is reportedly working on its IPO
StockX, the fast-growing auction platform for heritage sneakers and other collectibles, has started working on a public offering with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, said Bloomberg, quoting “people with knowledge of the matter.” The report, which could not be confirmed, comes a couple of months after StockX announced its first ...
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S&P assigns a negative outlook to Crocs
Having completed its review of Crocs following its expensive takeover of Hey Dude, Standard & Poor’s gave a negative outlook to the company, in contrast with the stable outlook assigned by Moody’s. S&P indicated that it might even downgrade Crocs further if it fails to integrate the casual footwear brand ...
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TaylorMade gets good ratings after hitting $1.4 bn in revenues
Centroid Investment Partners, the South Korean private equity company that bought TaylorMade last spring from KPS Partners, is now seeking to refinance the debt used for that transaction. Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s gave relatively favorable ratings to its refinancing plans, noting that TaylorMade’s sales continued to grow strongly last ...
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Amer Sports sells Suunto to a Chinese tech firm
Amer Sports revealed an agreement reached with a Chinese technology company, Liesheng, to sell its Finnish-based Suunto brand, which specializes in sports watches, dive computers and other precision sports instruments. Amer said the sale was in line with its strategy to focus on developing internationally recognized sporting goods brands in ...
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Adidas starts new share buyback program
Adidas announced the start of the first tranche of its new multi-year share buyback program, announced in December 2021. As part of the program, the company intends to repurchase up to €1 billion worth of its own shares during the first quarter of 2022 alone. The company, which already completed ...
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ABG cancels its IPO registration
The Authentic Brands Group has officially withdrawn the application that it had made with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission on July 6, 2021 for an initial public offering. ABG, which is still in line to take over Reebok before the end of the current quarter, had indicated in November ...
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Fanatics buys Topps, boosting its international sports collectibles business
Fanatics announced the acquisition of Topps’ sports & entertainment division, covering its worldwide online and offline business with trading cards and collectibles, in a deal said to be worth about $500 million. Topps had sales of $567 million in 2021. About 60 percent of the revenues came from the operations ...
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Reassuring investors, Crocs touts Hey Dude’s potential
As previously reported, both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s placed Crocs’ credit rating under review after the American clog producer announced the $2.5 billion acquisition just before Christmas of Hey Dude Shoes (or Heydude), an Italian casual footwear brand that is primarily distributed in the U.S. Both agencies expect that ...
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ABG and Puma circle over the Beckhams
The Authentic Brands Group (ABG), which is in line to complete its acquisition of Reebok during the first quarter of 2022, has reportedly signed a deal to buy 55 percent of the shares in DB Ventures from David Beckham for $269 million. The company manages the former popular English football ...
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Escalade buys Brunswick Billiards from Life Fitness
Escalade has agreed to take over Brunswick’s billiards business from Life Fitness. Brunswick has been selling billard tables and related products since 1845. Escalade is already involved since 1977 in the sector and the broader indoor recreation market. Aside from Stiga tennis tables and Accudart and Uncorn darting products, it ...
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Sports Direct’s parent is reportedly bidding for Footasylum
Frasers Group has filed an offer to buy Footasylum, according to The Sunday Times. It has notified the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which again ruled in November that JD Sports Fashion must divest the 65-store chain on anti-trust grounds. JD acquired Footasylum in May 2019. Frasers’ bid is questionable, ...
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Signa and Central take over Selfridges
The Austrian-based Signa Holding group and the Thai-based Central Group believe that the department store business has a future, especially in its premium segment and with a strong online component. The two family-owned groups announced on Dec. 23 that they have each acquired a 50 percent stake in the international ...
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Crocs buys Hey Dude for $2.5 bn
Crocs has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Hey Dude, spelled also as Heydude, a privately-owned, high-growth casual footwear brand, for $2.5 billion. Crocs estimates that the acquisition will turn it into the second-largest group of branded casual footwear, with forecast revenues approaching $4 billion in 2022, to which ...
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Alpargatas buys a sustainable sneaker brand, Rothy’s
Alpargatas is investing $475 million to buy an initial minority stake of 49.9 percent in Rothy’s, a San Francisco-based, direct-to-consumer brand of sustainable sneakers and other casual footwear similar in some ways to Allbirds, with an option to take over full ownership within four years. The Brazilian group, known for ...
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Calida’s Millet Mountain Group returns to the founding family
In an announcement made on Dec. 24, the Swiss-based Calida Group said it received a binding offer from Jean-Pierre Millet, together with Inspiring Sport Capital, for their takeover of the French-based Millet Mountain Group, which includes the Millet and Lafuma Outdoor brands. Jean-Pierre Millet is a grandson of one of ...
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Li & Fung teams up with Maersk
Li & Fung, the leading Hong Kong-based sourcing company, and Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, have agreed to form a strategic partnership to offer a more comprehensive range of end-to-end global supply chain services by utilizing their respective resources. As part of the deal, Li & Fung has ...
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Ambitious new targets for Slinger
Slinger, the company that introduced the portable Slinger Bag for tennis balls in 2019, is targeting sales of $17 to $18 million for the financial year ending in April from this product, to the exclusion of recent acquisitions, representing year-on-year growth of between 57 and 67 percent. It expects to ...
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Oberalp Group acquires manufacturer of raw material for ski touring skins
The Oberalp Group has announced the acquisition of Velotex from Pongs Velours. Velotex specializes in the production of mohair velvet, which is an essential product for ski touring skins, and other products for skiing. The closing of the transaction is scheduled for Jan. 1, 2022. The takeover allows Oberalp to ...
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Samurai is “pushing forward” beyond rugby
Capitalizing on the growing popularity of rugby and inspired by its values, Samurai is broadening the range of its apparel collections from teamwear into the wider lifestyle and athleisure sectors to address a wider community of consumers. It’s going to do this with a lot of story-telling on social media ...