Text|Ma Lian Hong.
A few days after Arc'teryx's parent company, Amer Sports, went public, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson stepped up his weight to buy 24.9 million shares of Amalfen** for an IPO of $13 per share, worth $3$2.4 billion. It is worth mentioning that the deal is "over budget**" and is 50% higher than the billionaire's previous plans.
Ten years ago, Wilson left his brand, lululemon, amid controversy, and sold off a majority stake in his own. But according to Forbes, Wilson still has a net worth of nearly $7 billion with the remaining 8% stake in lululemon. Now, Amalfen is bringing more wealth to the billionaire. Previously, Wilson held 79.1 million shares**, which is **1. per share since Amalfen went public$95, adding $2 to Wilson's personal wealth0.3 billion US dollars.
After the transaction was completed, Wilson invested a total of $9$1.7 billion, as of February 7 New York Trading**, Amalfen's share price was 15$13, he holds 10.4 billion shares** with a total value of 15$700 million.
With an 8% stake in lululemon, Wilson is worth as much as $7 billion.
Prior to founding lululemon, Wilson opened his first retail apparel company, Westbeach Snowboard, Ltd, in 1979. Later, he took over the company in 1997. In 1998, Wilson founded lululemon and has served as the group's chairman ever since. In 2007, lululemon went public and raised 18.2 million shares$27.6 billion, Wilson also became a billionaire. In 2013, lululemon had to recall a large number of products due to the sheer fabric of its flagship yoga pants, which was complicated by Wilson's inappropriate remarks about the recall.
In 2013, Wilson stepped down as chairman and retained his directorship. After that, he successively ** his own holdings of lululemon**. In February 2015, Wilson announced his resignation from the company's board of directors, saying goodbye to the company he had founded. In 2019, Wilson lost the right to appoint a representative of the board of directors for violating an agreement.
I served as chairman until 2013, when I lost control of the culture and product development," Wilson has been in the spotlight for his "bluntness," writing on his personal platform: "I left in 2013 at a disagreement with a board that didn't want to invest in the future." Since then, the outspoken Canadian has been regularly slamming lululemon and its customers, even though he still owns 8% of the company.
Since 2020, lululemon's revenue has soared, and so has the company's **value**, in January this year, lululemon's market value reached a record high of $64.3 billion, becoming the world's seventh-largest clothing company, with the remaining 8% of the equity, Wilson's worth reached more than $7 billion.
In fact, Wilson's net worth is much more than $7 billion, and he "retired" early and is keen to invest, mainly in the real estate and clothing industries. He owns the most expensive home in British Columbia, which is a 1The 50,000-square-foot, $55 million waterfront complex with seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms and a tennis court back in 2010 he founded Low Tide Properties with his friend and real estate executive D**id Ferguson and began buying commercial real estate throughout Vancouver. The company has invested in 27 real estate targets to date and is currently valued at about $500 million.
Wilson has invested 9$1.7 billion.
As interesting as real estate investing is, Wilson says his passion remains athletic clothing, which really keeps him motivated. Two years after leaving lululemon, he began touting his new family brand, Kit &Ace, which sells machine-washable cashmere wool garments, which was expected to generate $1 billion in sales by 2020, but in the end, Wilson sold the company to George Tsogas, a former Lululemon executive. Today, Kit & Ace, which was acquired by Canadian retail group Unity Brands, has only six stores.
In 2019, Wilson embarked on another investment in his sportswear sector. An international consortium comprising ANTA Sports, FountainVest Capital, Anamered Investments (the personal investment arm of lululemon founder Chip Wilson) and Tencent acquired Amalfen Sports with the goal of unlocking significant potential brand growth by transforming its business model, investing in brands, expanding geographically and developing a multi-channel strategy.
According to foreign media reports, when he knew that Anta was preparing to bid for Amalfen, Wilson was considering acquiring the Finnish company himself. Wilson's investigation later found that Anta is the world's second-largest economy's largest sportswear company, with a number of sportswear brands under its umbrella, including Fila's business in China, which at the time had nearly 1,800 Fila stores in mainland China, as well as in Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. The company also has more than 10,000 Anta stores in Chinese mainland — a domestic footprint nearly nine times the number of Nike stores worldwide.
I hit ** and said to them, 'I don't want to compete with you, so why don't we do it together?' Wilson recalled in an interview with **. In the end, Wilson contributed 5$9.3 billion, acquired 2065% of the shares. After participating in the acquisition of Amalfen Sports, Wilson also paid 7HK$7.8 billion subscribed to ANTA Sports for about 06% equity.
Billionaire Wilson has previously said that he will buy up to $2$200 million **, and now bought 3$2.4 billion, meaning he raised the stakes to 50% higher than expected. With this bid, Wilson has invested a total of 9$1.7 billion.
Unlike running a real estate company, Wilson clearly puts more thought into the operation of Amalfen Sports. In 2022, Wilson announced that he was spending time helping Amalfen expand sales through the direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel. Wilson said that some of Amalfen's brands are mainly used in winter and don't know much about spring and summer products, as well as women's products, and he can help in this regard.
The share price of Amalfen Sports is **15%, and the market value exceeds $7 billion.
Will Wilson's investment be a winning bet in the long run?
Wilson's bullishness on Amalfen runs counter to Wall Street's apparent attitude toward the offering. On Feb. 1, Amalfen Sports went public with a lower-than-expected ** offering, with the company initially seeking to trade between $16 and $18 and reach a market capitalization of $8.3 billion. However, in the IPO, the actual ** is $13 per share, which means that the market value of Amalfen at the time of listing is $6.3 billion, and foreign media believe that its performance is uneventful as the largest listing event since September 2023.
But since the IPO, Amalfen's share price has risen by 15%, which shows that investors are very optimistic about the company's future. Prior to this transaction, Amalfen was **1$95, adding $2 to Wilson's personal wealth0.3 billion US dollars. Compared to lululemon's IPO in 2007, Wilson has achieved more returns in the listing stage of Amalfen. This also led Wilson to decide to put more bets.
In terms of brand development, Amalfen Sports is facing a stage of globalization transformation. In the past four years, Amalfen Sports has not escaped from loss. From 2020 to 2022, Amalfen Sports lost 2$3.7 billion, 1$2.6 billion, 2$5.3 billion; The cumulative loss in three years is 6$1.6 billion. According to the prospectus, in the first three quarters of 2023, Amalfen Sports achieved revenue of 30$5.3 billion, with a net loss of 1$1.4 billion. Amalfen Sports said that it expects revenue of 43$5.3 billion to $43$6.3 billion, with a net loss of $200 million to $2.3 billion$3.4 billion.
In addition, Amalfen Sports is facing high debt. According to the prospectus, as of September 2023, the total assets of Amalfen Sports are 81$4.7 billion, with total liabilities of $8.1US$3.8 billion, of which long-term liabilities totaled 6.7 billion$0.2 billion.
Looking forward to the future, facing global development and realizing the subdivision operation of its various brands, it is not a single achievement, and Amalfen may also need to work business strategy and core competitiveness.
Note: The ** used in this article is from the official website of Amalfen Sports.