Li Ning Is Revealed To Have Obvious International Strategic Intention To Acquire Clarks

According to an earlier report, Lion Rock capital, a private equity fund company in Hong Kong, China, is negotiating to acquire less than 50% of Clarks, a 100 year old British shoe brand, with a capital of about 100 million to 150 million pounds. In addition, alteri, a company that specializes in financing troubled retailers, is also participating in the bidding Investors, it is understood, will close the deal in October.

Although Jiang Jiaqiang, the founder of lane capital and a Chinese American businessman, previously focused on Internet enterprises and did not get involved in the field of fashion, the real boss behind Lane capital is a full-fledged fashion businessman. According to the official website of lane capital, the current chairman of the company is Li Ning, the founder of domestic sports apparel giant Li Ning. This means that Li Ning may be the inspiration of lane capital's acquisition of Clarks.

In August last year, at the mid-term performance meeting of Li Ning Company in 2019, Zeng Huafeng, chief financial officer of Li Ning, said that the group still focused on the strategy of "single brand, multi category and multi-channel", and believed that there was still a lot of room for development of Li Ning brand in terms of depth and breadth.

He also disclosed that Li Ning group has established a private equity fund with Lion Rock capital, a private equity fund company. Among them, Li Ning has invested about US $61 million, hoping to invest in appropriate foreign consumer and sports brands in the form of limited partnership through the fund.

On May 15, this year, Li Ning's holding of Feifan China and Hong Kong leisure clothing brand Bao Shilong issued a joint announcement. Both sides have signed a share purchase agreement. Feifan China will acquire 66.6% shares of baoshilong with HK $46.62 million by holding 80% of its subsidiary "VC consumables".

With regard to this acquisition, fanciful China believes that there will be synergy between the baoshilong group and the consumer goods business (marketing, supply chain solutions and distribution channels in China). At the same time, extraordinary China intends to expand and expand the consumer goods market ambition fully revealed.

According to its annual report in 2019, Feifan China has developed a long-term business strategy, including sports experience and sports and leisure consumer goods. Among them, sports experience business is its core sports business, with a compound annual growth rate of about 36% from 2017 to 2019. For the latter, no revenue was recorded in the previous year.

However, for the prospect of sports related consumer goods market, Fanfan China is sure of no doubt, and will regard it as one of the main concerns in the next few years. In order to gain a firm foothold in the market as soon as possible, special China, on the one hand, actively seeks and looks for opportunities, especially the merger and acquisition opportunities of clothing and footwear brands related to sports, life and leisure. On the other hand, it has established a relevant operation team, which has gained a lot in the past year.

In June 2019, we will focus on the young consumers of LNG. Subsequently, it acquired 80% ownership of snake, an E-sports team, and renamed LNG e-economy club. Last year, the LNG E-sports team made great achievements in many League of heroes professional leagues. Extraordinary China through this move is intended to enhance the brand influence of LNG.

Now, the bidding for Clarks marks that Li Ning is not only speeding up in the domestic consumer goods market, but also deepening internationalization.

Materials show that Clarks (Qile) is an old British comfort shoes giant, founded in 1825. Clarks opened its first store in China in 1992 and set up a brand company in China in 2004. At present, Clarks has become the global di-1 non sports shoes brand, and is also the British di-1 men's and women's shoes brand, the first children's shoes brand in the UK. There are more than 1400 independent brand stores around the world.

Clarks was seriously affected by the global outbreak. According to Sky News, citing people familiar with the matter, Clarks is planning to close underperforming stores through the company's voluntary debt service arrangement (similar to the U.S. bankruptcy protection arrangement, or CVA), in order to reach a rescue agreement. The agreement was led by Lion Rock, a private equity fund in Hong Kong, China.

Lionrock will inject more than 100 million pounds of new capital into Clarks, subject to CVA approval, according to a private equity fund. The majority stake in Clarks, for example, will be completed after the founding of the family brand in 1955.

In the view of industry insiders, Clarks' thousands of stores around the world are an important channel supplement for Li Ning group to enter the international market. According to the new plan, Clarks' products will be divided into three categories: Clarks origins, Clarks collection and cloudsteppers by Clarks. They will meet different market demands, which is consistent with Li Ning's "single brand, multi category, multi-channel" strategy.