On the evening of January 31st, local time in Finland, Amer Sports, a Finnish sporting goods group owned by Chinese Anta Group, announced that its IPO price was set at $13 per share. It will issue 105 million shares of common stock, expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on February 1st (New York time), under the ticker symbol “AS”. The valuation of Amer Sports is around $6.3 billion.
On January 22nd, Amer Sports announced that it had been approved for listing on the NYSE. According to documents provided at that time, the IPO was priced in the range of $16-$18 per share, planning to issue 100 million shares of common stock, with a valuation between $7.7 billion and $8.7 billion. Thus, the current issue price is below the previously set range, and the number of ordinary shares issued has increased by 5 million.
This IPO has raised a total of $1.365 billion for Amer Sports, making it the largest IPO since October 2023, following the German century-old sandal brand Birkenstock, which raised $1.48 billion.
According to the prospectus, Amer Sports’ three cornerstone investors—Anta Sports, Anamered Investments, and Tencent—have expressed interest in purchasing common shares at the IPO price: Anta and Anamered Investments both plan to subscribe for a total amount not exceeding $220 million, while Tencent plans to subscribe for no more than $70 million.
*Anamered Investments is an investment company founded by Chip Wilson, the founder of the Canadian yoga sport brand lululemon.
Bloomberg reported that the three cornerstone investors agreed to purchase an additional 21 million shares at the IPO price on top of their previous commitments. With this, the three cornerstone investors have bought $783 million worth of shares in this IPO, accounting for about 60% of the total funds raised.
Reuters stated that the reason for the IPO price being lower than expected is due to investors’ concerns over its increasing reliance on the Chinese market for revenue.
According to the prospectus: From 2020 to 2022, Amer Sports’ sales revenue in Greater China grew from $202 million to $524 million with a compound annual growth rate of 60.9%, increasing its share of global sales from 8.3% to 14.8%; in the first three quarters of 2023, revenue in Greater China surged by 67.6% year-on-year to $593 million, already exceeding the full year’s revenue in Greater China for 2022, with the global share further increasing to 19.4%.
Moreover, Amer Sports warned in its IPO prospectus that escalating trade tensions could potentially restrict the company’s ability to sell its goods manufactured or sourced in China in the U.S. due to tariffs or other factors, as Amer Sports’ primary suppliers and manufacturing facilities are located in China.
In the prospectus, Amer Sports disclosed its preliminary financial data for 2023:
- Revenue: Expected to be between $4.35 billion and $4.36 billion, an increase of 22.7%-23.0% year-on-year;
- Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization): Expected to be between $597 million and $607 million, an increase of 31.8%-34.0% year-on-year;
- Net loss: Expected to be between $204 million and $234 million, with the loss narrowing by 7.4%-19.3%.
| Source: Amer Sports press release, Reuters, Bloomberg
| Image Credit: Amer Sports website
丨reporter: Wang Jiaqi
| Editor: LeZhi
