News briefs - Corporate and M&A – Page 38
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News briefs
Courir buys a Danish-based sneaker retailer catering to women
Courir, the international French-based athletic footwear chain sold by Groupe Go Sport to Equistone Partners Europe at the end of 2018, is taking over Naked Copenhagen, an international online and offline retailer speicializing in top-tier releases of sneakers and streetwear for young women. The price of the transaction has not ...
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News briefs
Xtep sells bonds to Hillhouse to help internationalize K-Swiss and Palladium
Xtep International has completed a $129.4 million convertible bond offering intended to expand the presence of its K-Swiss and Palladium brands internationally. The debt offering consisted of two tranches, a U.S.-dollar-denominated tranche of $65 million with a zero coupon and a tranche worth 500 millionn Hong Kong dollars ($65.4 million) ...
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News briefs
On Holding raises IPO price to $20-22
The parent company of On Running has informed the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission that it has decided to raise the price of its initial public offering from a range of $18 to $20 to a range of $20 to $22. The company has also indicated that the full overallotment ...
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News briefs
Castore moves into cricket, eyes a possible IPO
Castore, which is said to be planning to go public in 2022, has replaced New Balance as sponsor of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB). By the terms of the deal, worth some £25 million (€29m-$35m), the British sportswear producer will be supplying all ECB teams – men’s, women’s, ...
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News briefs
Vista Outdoor buys a producer of golf simulators
Trying to capitalize on the recent boom in the golf market, Vista Outdoor has agreed to buy Foresight Sports, a producer of high-enhd golf simulators based in San Diego, California, for $475 million plus up to $25 million in contingent incentives. The amount is equal to about ten times the ...
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News briefs
VF executive takes over Eagle Creek
Travis Campbell, a former consultant with Andersen and a former Deloitte consultant who had been in charge of emerging brands at VF Corp. until a few weeks ago, has acquired all the assets of Eagle Creek, a daypack and travel luggage brand founded in Colorado in 1975 that VF took ...
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News briefs
Dassler family behind new fund for sports technology startups
A new $30 million equity investment fund, the Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Fund, has been set up to help about 20 early-stage startups in the areas of fan engagement, connected athletes, health and well-being to bridge the gap between seed investment and pre-Series A funding. Its portfolio already ...
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News briefs
Asics invests in the training of fitness coaches
Asics Ventures has made an investment in Deportare Technologies, a Japanese firm that operates an online fitness academy that is supposed to train fitness coaches, certifying them as “healthcare catalysts.” The company was set up in July 2020 by Yuma Takashita, the founder of the exclusive Deportare Club in Tokyo, ...
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News briefs
Spain’s Zcebra is the first European pickleball supplier
According to Palco23, Xiana López has invested €52,000 into Zcebra, the company she founded at the start of this year. Headquartered in Guadarrama, near Madrid, the Spanish company is Europe’s only producer of pickleball paddles, balls, nets and apparel, serving 22 of the continent’s countries. López and a graphic designer ...
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News briefs
Whoop acquires a weightlifting technology start-up, Push
Fresh off from a $200 million equity increase, Whoop has acquired Push, a start-up whose technology uses multiple sensors worn by athletes to measure weightlifting power, speed, force and acceleration. Whoop is taking over the Toronto-based company at an undisclosed price in exchange for cash and shares. Its equipment, software ...
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News briefs
Hummel is buying a Danish childrenswear brand
Intensifying its focus on the kids market, Hummel has agreed to take over Sometime Soon, a Danish brand of streetwear-inspired children’s clothing for boys aged 0 to 14. Cathrine Høilund, who co-founded the firm in 2015, will continue as its creative director. The takeover will only be effective in January ...
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News briefs
Former European executive of Burton joins Myutility Bag
Myutility Bag (MUB), the French start-up acquired by Frank Heissat five months ago, has completed a new round of financing and added an experienced partner to help boost its international development. Franck Waterlot, who served as joint European managing director and vice president of commercial and marketing operations a tBurton ...
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News briefs
Nautilus is acquiring a motion tracking start-up
Nautilus has announced a definitive agreement to acquire VAY (pronounced “way,”), a company whose proprietary computer vision software enables computers to understand human motion through cameras. The price of the transaction has not been disclosed. Nautilus says the acquisition will allow it to scale its own JRNY digital platform by ...
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News briefs
India’s Elevar raises $2.6 million in funding
Elevar, a three-year-old sporting goods producer based in Mumbai, has raised INR190,000,000 (€2.2m-$2.6m) in a Series A funding round led by a venture capital firm, Kalaari Capital. Dream Sports also participated in the fundraising. Elevar is expected to use the funding to expand its product portfolio, increase its marketing efforts ...
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News briefs
Whoop’s valuation rises from $1.2bn to $3.6bn
The valuation of Whoop has risen to $3.6 billion through a new $200 million Series E round of financing led by the SoftBank Vision Fund 2. “While we have experienced amazing growth in the past year, the potential of our technology and the vast market for health monitoring remains largely ...
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News briefsLululemon expands benefits, increases minimum pay
Lululemon Athletica has announced an increase in the minimum wage for the majority of its store and Guest Education Center (GEC) employees in North America, providing an overview of the company’s approach to compensation and benefits. Beginning Sept. 27, both current and future employees will receive a new minimum wage ...
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News briefs
Share options worth £100 million for Frasers’ future CEO
The Remuneration Committee of Frasers Group, which owns Sports Direct and many other brands retail operations in the U.K. and elsewhere, is proposing to award shares worth £100 million (€117m-$137m) as a performance-related bonus to Michael Murray, who is set to take the place of group CEO from Mike Ashley ...
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News briefsSport Holding is acquiring Bergans
Sport Holding, the Norwegian retail group formed in 2020 after Gresvig, the Norwegian licensee of Intersport, and Sport 1 Gruppen merged, announced that it is acquiring 100 percent of the shares of Bergans Fritid AS, one of the major outdoor clothing and equipment companies in Norway. The group, including Sport ...
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News briefs
ABG to retain its debt rating with Reebok's acquisition
Moody’s said that it will not be changing the Authentic Brands Group’s debt rating (B2 Stable) in light of its costly acquisition of Reebok. As Moody’s notes, Reebok’s sales growth “has consistently lagged behind” that of Adidas, the selling party (A2 Stable), and its turnaround, begun in 2016, is not ...
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News briefs
Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof will become Galeria
Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, the German company formed in 2018 from the merger of the Karstadt and Galeria Kaufhof department store chains that became wholly owned by Signa Retail in 2019, has unveiled a new concept for its 131 locations in Germany, which will see the company strategically reposition itself starting ...
