The Takeover Bid Is Coming To An End. Anta Will Bring Amer Sports Into Its Ranks.

The latest progress has been made in the cross-border acquisition led by Anta sports.

On the evening of April 1st, Anta sports announced that the tender offer for Finland sports giant Amer Sports was closed at twelve three p.m. Finland time (Beijing time March 29th 17 hours and 3 minutes), and the shares acquired by the tender offer accounted for about 98.11% of the total Amer Sports shares and voting rights (excluding Amer Sports and any shares held by its Affiliated Companies).

Because of the intention to acquire all the shares of Amer Sports, Anta consortium will buy the remaining Amer Sports shares outside the NASDAQ Helsinki stock exchange or the offer offer, so that the shares of Amer Sports will be revoked from the above exchanges.

So far, the overseas Chinese M & A, which is regarded by the outside world as the largest sporting goods industry in China, has finally come to an end.

More people in the industry say that Anta's income from Finland sports giant is just around the corner.

It lasted 3 months.

The tender offer of Anta consortium can be traced back to December 2018.

At that time, Anta sports announced that Anta sports, China private equity fund, Lululemon Athletica founder Chip Wilson and Tencent formed an investor consortium to offer all the issued and issued shares of Amer Sports in cash offer, which will start from December 20, 2018 and continue for about ten weeks. It is expected that the tender offer will be completed in the second quarter of 2019.

The announcement shows that if the acquisition is completed, Anta will get a Amer Sports 58% stake, and the Chinese private equity fund has 21.3% of the source capital, and Anamered Investments, the founder of Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon, will get 20.6%.

As a member of the buyout consortium, Tencent, a Chinese technology giant, participates in trading through a fund of Fangyuan capital, with a shareholding ratio of about 5% to 10%.

In February 21st, Anta sports announced that in order to match the progress of the approval of the antitrust authorities, the Anta consortium extended the proposed offer to March 7, 2019.

But 4 days later, Anta sports announced again that the consortium led by Anta has obtained all the official approval required to acquire Amer Sports.

In March 12th, Anta sports updated its acquisition dynamics, saying that the Anta consortium has successfully completed the public offer to acquire all the shares issued and issued by Amer Sports, and expects to complete the payment before March 29th.

According to its April 1st announcement, with the successful completion of the follow-up offer, Anta consortium has decided not to launch any other follow-up offer.

Therefore, the tender offer procedures have been completed.

Next, the Anta consortium will apply to the Finland chamber of Commerce to redeem the Commission to start the mandatory redemption procedure, and to make the Amer Sports shares revoked on the aforementioned exchanges as soon as permitted and reasonably practicable.

Ho throw 4 billion 600 million euros

It is worth mentioning that initially, Anta sports announced in September 2018 the tender offer is only a consortium of Anta sports and private equity fund source capital.

Two months later, according to relevant media reports, Tencent, a technology giant, will join the takeover consortium as a minority shareholder. When the International Financial Daily reporter verified the Tencent side, the relevant person in charge responded to the reporter's "no comment".

Coincidentally, in early December 2018, the news about Lululemon Chip Wilson founder of Canada's Yoga wear retailer or joining the buyer's group spread like wildfire.

Finally, in December 7, 2018, Anta sports published a notice to "tell" the true colors of all shareholders involved in the paction.

The announcement said that Anta consortium will offer all the issued and issued shares of Amer Sports in cash offer through the newly established Mascot Bidco Oy company. The offer price is 40 euros per share, and the tender offer is worth about 4 billion 600 million euros.

Public information shows that Amer Sports was founded in 1950, and was listed on the NASDAQ Helsinki exchange as early as 1977. Its flagship brands include Salomon Salomon, Arcteryx eulogy, Atomic Ato Mick, Suunto song and so on. Among them, the most famous Canadian clothing and equipment brand eulogy was acquired by Amer Sport in 2005.

According to the annual financial data for fiscal year 2018, which was disclosed by Amer Sports in February 7th, its operating income reached 2 billion 678 million euros (20 billion yuan), and its net profit was 141 million euros (about 1 billion yuan). The main revenue contribution came from Europe and America, and Asia Pacific region accounted for only 15% of revenue.

However, from the perspective of regional revenue growth (excluding exchange rate conversion), the Asia Pacific region ranked first in terms of 10% growth rate, 8% in Europe and 4% in the Americas.

For Anta why "Amer" Sports, marketing expert Lu Shengzhen believes that Anta in the next set of ambitious chess.

"At present, Anta's domestic business accounts for 95% of the total. In the case of domestic market saturation, expanding the Middle East and Africa market is consistent with its overseas layout strategy.

At the same time, using Amer Sports's market capacity in clothing and sports equipment to enrich Anta's industrial structure can help Anta further enhance its layout and profitability in China and the global market.

Lu Shengzhen told the International Financial Daily reporter.

Tang Xiaotang, founder of fashion industry research and consulting firm No Agency, also told reporters that Anta's overseas acquisitions were mostly investment based on the brand of Greater China.

The acquisition of Amer Sports, in addition to the right to use the brand, also includes Amer Sports global stores operating rights, all brand intellectual property rights and other aspects of wholly-owned mergers and acquisitions.

"Therefore, for Anta, it is truly internationalized. If the acquisition is successful, Anta will enter a new stage of development, especially in the European market and the expansion of the Americas market".

International layout

Insiders believe that both the previous multi brand layout or the acquisition of Amer Sports reveal the global ambition of the "Jinjiang Department" national brand Anta.

At present, Anta, whose market value has exceeded 100 billion yuan, has already secured the top spot of China's sports brand.

According to the 2018 performance report, Anta's revenue in 2018 amounted to 24 billion 100 million yuan, an increase of 44.4% over the same period last year, and the net profit attributable to shareholders was 4 billion 103 million yuan, an increase of 32.9% over the same period last year.

In the 2018 annual performance conference, Ding Shizhong, chairman of Anta group, publicly stated that in 2018, Anta made the most important decision in its pioneering work so far, that is, Anta joined hands with other investors to form a consortium and formally issued a takeover offer to Amer Sports.

"This is an important step for Anta to take an international step. Although the acquisition still needs some trading processes, I am confident of the acquisition because we have the ability and confidence to create more value for the global consumers".

Combing reporters found that in recent years, Anta has spared no effort in internationalizing its layout: in 2009, Anta successfully acquired FILA's business in mainland China; in 2015, Anta completed the acquisition of the British sports brand Sprandi; in 2016, Anta set up a joint venture to run the Japanese high-end ski brand Descente business in China; after a year, Anta again bought the Korean mountaineering equipment brand Kingkow, and set up a joint venture to operate KOLON SPORT business in China.

In fact, apart from Anta, another local sports giant XTEP is also actively internationalizing its layout.

In March 4th, XTEP group announced that it plans to invest 155 million yuan (a total of 310 million yuan) to establish a joint venture with the American Footwear Company Walter Flynn group to carry out the development, marketing and distribution business of its Saucony shoes (shoes), clothing and accessories in mainland China, Hongkong, China and Macao, China (Merrell).

It is understood that St. John's main brand of outdoor footwear for climbing shoes, Mai le for the United States running shoes brand.