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It's a well-timed IPO for sports lovers glued to the US Open.
On Wednesday, Amer Sports -- owners and makers of Wilson tennis racquets as well as Salomon ski boots -- filed confidentially for an IPO that could bag the company a valuation as high as $10 billion, Bloomberg reported. It's just the latest group attempting to ace an ice-cold IPO market.
Wilsooon!!
Amer also owns Louisville Slugger baseball gear and Arc'teryx outdoor equipment among brands in its fold. And Amer, a Finnish parent company, is itself a subsidiary of several parent companies: namely, Chinese sports brand Anta -- the world's third-largest sporting goods player behind Nike and Adidas and -- as well as Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent.
That makes the IPO, which sources told Bloomberg is planned for sometime early next year, somewhat notable, given the recent slowdown in Chinese retail sales. But Amer's been a solid performer of late:
- Amer posted revenue of roughly $3.3 billion in 2022, marking a 22% increase from the year before.
- Amer is now seeking an IPO of more than $1 billion, and could end up seeking as much as $3 billion pending market conditions, sources told Bloomberg. Anta, Tencent, and other investors including Lululemon founder Chip Wilson acquired Anta in 2019 for about $5.2 billion.
Beware the Backspin: The recent history of sports equipment makers going public isn't exactly inspiring. In August, golf club manufacturer Sacks Parente debuted with a share price of $4. It surged to $30 on its first day of trading, only to plummet to around $2.50 a day later, and it's still hanging around at just $2. Sacks, however, disclosed it had just $90,000 in annual sales so far in its IPO prospectus and a loss of nearly $1 million. Sounds like a shank.
