(Text/Edited by Wang Li/Xu Zhe) On January 4, local time, Amer Sports, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "Amer") announced on its official website that it had submitted an initial public offering to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (ipo) application.
As a sports brand acquired by Anta in 2019, Amer is also part of Anta's global multi-brand collaborative development strategy. The amount of approximately 37 billion yuan has also set a record for the largest merger and acquisition amount in the Chinese apparel industry. Currently, Amerās brands include salomon, arcāteryx, wilson, peak performance and atomic.
Although Amer Sports has not disclosed the price and scale of its issuance, according to previous reports by Bloomberg, Amer Sports plans to raise more than 1 billion US dollars through IPO, and the company's valuation can reach up to 10 billion US dollars. In the first three quarters of 2023, the company achieved revenue growth of 30%, totaling $3.05 billion.
In fact, signs of Amer's listing have already been revealed. In the first half of this year, Amer's peak performance business experienced goodwill and trademark impairment, with a scale of 1.131 billion yuan, causing Anta to record a loss of 516 million yuan.
analysts believe that although goodwill impairment has magnified the company's losses and reduced its net assets, it may usher in higher growth if net profits are affected. This move may be in preparation for the listing of Amer Sports. In the first half of the year, Amer's revenue increased by 37.2% year-on-year to 13.27 billion yuan, and ebitda (on a comprehensive basis) reached 1.779 billion yuan, setting the best half-year performance since 2019.
In addition, personnel adjustments have also occurred within Anta and Amer. According to previous company announcements, Ding Shizhong became chairman of the board of directors of Amer after resigning as CEO; Zheng Jie, who once led the acquisition of fila, resigned as CEO of Amer Sports. At the same time, lululemon founder Chip Wilson holds a position on the board of directors related to the IPO.
Amer Sports, which started in the tobacco business, wants to hit the New York Stock Exchange
On January 4, local time, Amer Sports announced on its official website that the company has submitted a registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and plans to trade in New York under the stock code "as" A stock exchange conducts an initial public offering (IPO).
Although the number of shares and price of the IPO have not yet been determined, the company's revenue will reach $3.5 billion in 2022, a significant increase from $2.4 billion in 2020.
(Screenshot from Amer Sports)
In the first nine months ended September 30, Amer Sportsā revenue increased by nearly 30% to $3.1 billion, and its gross profit margin rose from 49.4% to 52.2%, adjusted Post-ebitda climbed to $422.1 million from $261.8 million last year. However, the company's net loss widened to $113.9 million from $104.4 million last year. According to
public information, Amer Sports was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. As the parent company of many well-known sports brands such as Salomon, Arc'teryx, Wilson, and Peak Performance, Amer's practical actions were taken at the beginning of its establishment. It's the tobacco business.
Founded in 1950, Amer was founded by four student organizations. Since then, it has expanded from a tobacco company to shipping and publishing. In the 1970s, the company entered the sporting goods, interior decoration and ready-to-wear sectors by acquiring ice hockey equipment manufacturers and world-renowned design houses.
In the 1980s, Amer began to focus on sporting goods, acquiring some well-known sports brands and divesting non-core businesses. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984. In 2004, the company officially withdrew from the tobacco business and changed its name to Amer Sports. After being renamed to
, Amer continued to expand and introduce multiple new brands. In 2019, Amer was acquired by a consortium led by China's Anta Sports for US$5.2 billion and acquired from Nasdaq Helsinki. ) delisted. The impact on the New York Stock Exchange is also Amer's decision to return to the capital market.
After the Anta acquisition transaction was completed, Anta Sports held 58% of Amer, fountaininvest spv and anamed investments each accounted for 21%, and Tencent participated through fountainvest spv. According to the prospectus disclosed by Amer, these four institutional investors currently hold more than 5% of the shares.
In the announcement, Amer Sports announced that Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley will become joint lead underwriters of the proposed offering. It is reported that Amer Sportsā IPO target exceeds US$1 billion, with a market valuation of nearly 70 billion yuan.
Expand direct sales business, Anta operates Greater China and becomes the fastest growing place
Judging from the current business structure, Amer mainly operates three departments: technical apparel (including arc'teryx and peak performance brands), outdoor The product division (including the salomon and atomic brands), and the ball division (including the wilson brand).
In recent years, Amer has focused on expanding its direct sales business globally, including Wilson and Arc'teryx, which previously focused on wholesale. In recent years, they have continued to expand direct sales channels by opening new physical stores.
As of the end of September 2023, Amer Sports has 138 Arc'teryx stores, 114 Salomon stores, and 9 Wilson stores around the world, with more than 10,800 employees.
The move to expand direct sales business is particularly obvious in China.
As a professional traditional outdoor brand, Arc'teryx was very low-key in China before Anta's acquisition. However, the following year after Anta's acquisition, Arc'teryx signed the world's first spokesperson Liu Wen, which subsequently led to an increase in online marketing and the number of offline stores. The continuous surge has also led to performance growth.
Currently, Arc'teryx has more than 1.7 million members in Greater China, while this number was only 14,000 in 2018. Professionals believe that Arc'teryx's successful marketing and brand positioning at the Beijing Winter Olympics are the key to its rapid rise.
In 2022, the number of Arc'teryx stores will exceed 150. As of the end of September 2023, there are 63 Arc'teryx self-operated stores in Greater China. Also out of the circle is Salomon. In 2022, Salomon opened a 120-square-meter pioneer concept store in Taikoo Li, Sanlitun, Beijing. By the end of the third quarter of last year, Salomon had 30 stores in Greater China. Reflected in the performance level, Amer's direct sales have indeed become Anta's "cash cow".
According to Amer Sports' IPO registration documents, Salomon achieved more than $1 billion in revenue in 2022, while Arc'teryx had sales of $952.6 million during the same period.
In terms of regions, as of the first nine months of 2023, the Americas contributed 40% of revenue, Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for 33%, the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Greater China) accounted for 8%, and Greater China accounted for 19% %.
At the same time, Greater Chinaās annual growth rate is also far ahead. According to financial data, from 2020 to 2022, the average annual revenue growth rate in Greater China is as high as 60.9%. In the first three quarters of 2023, the year-on-year increase was 67.6% to US$593 million, accounting for 19.4% of total revenue.
In addition, in Greater China, the total number of employees increased from 450 in 2018 to 800. The total revenue of Arc'teryx, Salomon, and Wilson brands has exceeded 90% in the first three quarters of 2023. Among them, Arc'teryx's revenue increased by 61.8% year-on-year, and Greater China contributed 48%. Wilson has also benefited from its significant performance growth as it became the exclusive supplier and licensee of NBA basketball.
It is worth noting that there has been a major reshuffle in Anta's internal personnel recently.
After Anta Sports acquired Amer, Amer was integrated into Antaās outdoor product line and was directly led by Zheng Jie, the then group president and CEO of the outdoor sports brand group.
However, in January last year, Anta Sports announced that Zheng Jie would step down as group president and CEO of the outdoor sports brand group, and would continue to be responsible for related businesses as CEO of Amer (the parent company of Arc'teryx). At the same time, Anta implemented a joint CEO system, with Ding Shizhong stepping down as CEO, and a "double CEO" pattern formed by former CFO Lai Shixian and former CEO of professional sports brand group Wu Yonghua. Ding Shizhong will retain the position of chairman of the board of directors. This personnel adjustment is considered to be one of the largest changes in the group in the past decade.
At present, in addition to China's Tencent Holdings and private equity company FountaInvest, Amer's shareholders include Chip Wilson, the founder of the yoga clothing brand lululemon, who holds a position on the board of directors related to the IPO.
In recent years, in the development process of Anta, through the multi-brand strategy, the company has built a comprehensive sports group that runs through various sports fields. The main brand Anta is a star brand focusing on the mass sports market, while Fila leads the mid-to-high-end fashion and leisure market. Arc'teryx is an important brand in the group's mid-to-high-end outdoor field.
The success of Fila has set an example for Anta. However, whether Arc'teryx can replicate its glory based on this successful model has become the focus of attention.
