**: Ebang Power Network.
Text丨Liao Zilin.
On the evening of February 1, Beijing time, Amer Sports (Amalfen), a subsidiary of Anta Group, officially began trading on the ** New York Stock Exchange, ** as "AS", with an IPO issue price of $13 and an opening price of 13$40, up about 3% from the issue price, and finally closed at 13$4.
At the offering price, Amer Sports has a market capitalization of approximately $6.3 billion; On the first day of listing, Amer Sports had a market capitalization of about 649.2 billion US dollars (about 46.6 billion yuan). This is about 1 25 of Nike's market capitalization, Adidas' 1 3 market capitalization, and 1 4 of Anta Sports' market value on February 2, Beijing time, which is about equal to 1 Li Ning and 4 Xtep International.
In 2018, ANTA joined hands with FountainVenture Capital, founder of Canadian yoga apparel brand lululemon athletica, and Tencent to form a consortium and signed an acquisition agreement with Amer Sports to acquire the entire stake of the latter at a price of about 40 euros per share, with a purchase price of about 4.6 billion euros (about 36 billion yuan). At that time, Anta held 58% of the shares, which later fell to 56%, and further declined after the IPO, but it is still the largest shareholder of Amer Sports.
The three core brands reached the EUR 1 billion target ahead of schedule.
Revenue accounts for more than 80%.
Founded in 1950, Amer Sports is a comprehensive global sporting goods manufacturer and marketing company with 11 brands divided into three divisions: Technical Apparel, Outdoor Performance and Ball&Racquet Sports.
Among them, hard-core technical apparel brands include Arc'Teryx (Canadian high-end outdoor equipment brand) and Peak Performance (Swedish fashion outdoor brand), outdoor clothing & equipment brands include Salomon (French mountain outdoor off-road brand), Atomic (Austrian ski equipment brand), Armada (American ski goods brand), ENVE (American bicycle high-end carbon fiber accessories brand), Ball and racket equipment brands include Wilson, ATEC, Demarini and Louisville Slugger and Evoshield.
After the acquisition of Amer Sports, Anta Group has put forward "five 1 billion euro strategies" - by 2025, Arc'teryx (Arc'teryx), Salomon (Salomon) and Wilson (Wilson Sportswear Group) will each be "1 billion euros" brands, and the Chinese market and direct sales model will achieve 1 billion euros respectively.
As of the end of September 2023, Arc'teryx, Salomon and Wilson (330 self-operated retail stores in 24 countries around the world) generated revenues of approximately $1.3 billion, $1.3 billion, $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively, in the 12 months. In other words, the four strategic projects have already achieved their goals two years ahead of schedule.
According to the prospectus, from 2020 to 2022, Amer Sports' revenue will be 24$4.6 billion, $30$6.7 billion and $35$4.9 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 204%；Amer Sports expects revenue of about 43 percent in 20235 to 43600 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 227% to 230%, with revenue of 30$5.3 billion.
Over the past three years, the three core brands of Arc'teryx, Salomon and Wilson have contributed more than 80% of Amer Sports' operating revenue, accounting for more than 80% of Amer Sports' operating revenue, accounting for the same percentage from 2020 to 2022. 6% and 863%。Among them, in the first three quarters of 2023, arc'teryx's contribution to the group's revenue was 308%, Salomon and Wilson were 311% and 284%。
This is the result of several years of continuous streamlining of the brand by Amer Sports. In 2019, Amer Sports spun off the cycling brand M**IC, in 2021 it spun off the health equipment brand Precor, and in 2022 it spun off the smartwatch brand Suunto.
In terms of profitability, Amer Sports did not disclose detailed data for each brand. However, from 2020 to 2022, Amer Sports' net loss was 2$3.7 billion, 1$2.6 billion and 2$5.3 billion, in the first three quarters of 2023, Amer Sports had a net loss of 1$1.4 billion, still not profitable.
Sales growth in Greater China exceeded 67%.
Greater China accounted for 194%
Although the revenue of another strategic project in Greater China did not reach the target of 1 billion euros ahead of schedule, it reached 800 million US dollars in the 12 months to the end of September 2023, and the revenue in the first three quarters of 2023 increased by 67% year-on-year6% up to 5$9.3 billion.
It is undeniable that the Chinese market is now the most important growth for Amer Sports**. From 2020 to 2022, Amer Sports' revenue in Greater China accounted for 83% to 148%, further increased to 19. in the first three quarters of 20234%。
In terms of brands, Arc'teryx and Salomon are the two main brands driving the rapid growth of Amer Sports in Greater China.
Since its acquisition in 2020, Amer Sports has realigned its leadership in each segment with the appointment of John Yao as General Manager of Greater China. Prior to joining Amer Sports, John worked for Nike in Greater China for over 17 years.
Under its management, in the first three quarters of 2023, Arc'teryx's Greater China revenue accounted for 48% of the brand's performance, becoming the largest market with more than 1.7 million members; Between 2021 and 2022, Salomon Greater China revenue increased by 72%.
Looking at the channel, self-operated retail stores have become an important factor in the rapid growth of Amer Sports in Greater China.
As of September 30, 2023, Amer Sports has 63 Arc'teryx self-operated retail stores in Greater China, accounting for half of the total number of stores in the world, more than North America and Europe; Salomon has grown 30 self-operated retail stores and 67 distribution stores, up from 13 in 2019.
For a long time in the past, AMER Sports was mainly based on wholesale channels, and after the acquisition, Anta carried out direct sales reform, ** all Amalfen dealers in the hands of the outlet channel and online store management rights, the goods were changed to the headquarters to be uniformly allocated, a large number of dealers were eliminated, and Anta's direct retail capacity was grafted.
The prospectus mentions that as of September 30, 2023, the number of self-operated retail stores of Amer Sports exceeded 330, an increase of about 69% compared to 2019, and the revenue growth of the wholesale channel was 199% and 56% revenue growth from the DTC channel7% up to 10$02.3 billion, compared to $6$39.7 billion.
In the 12 months to the end of September 2023, Arc'teryx achieved $2,051 in self-operated retail stores, twice as much as North America ($1,061), compared to $1,251 in 2021.
*The experience of ANTA and FILA has enabled ANTA Group to summarize a set of effective experience methods** - acquiring international brands to occupy the market segment of the industry, relying on its brand and R&D capabilities on the product side, forming a first-mover advantage in the untapped Chinese market, choosing the DTC model in the channel, improving the efficiency of direct channels, and finally achieving the brand performance target.
This time, ANTA Experience has also succeeded in the operation of Amer Sports.
Don't be China's Nike, be the world's Anta".
Not to be China's Nike, but to be the world's Anta", this is the goal of Ding Shizhong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Anta Group. Within ANTA Group, its strategic goals have been upgraded from "single-focus, multi-brand, and omni-channel" to "single-focus, multi-brand, and globalization" in 2021, and globalization has risen to the level of the company's strategy.
Amer Sports is part of ANTA's globalization strategy, which includes the acquisition of established global brands. In addition, there are Italian fashion and sports brand FILA, Japanese sportswear brand Descente, children's clothing brand Kingkow, and Korean sportswear brand Kolon Sport.
On January 5, ANTA released its latest operating data for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. It is said that in 2023, the retail value of Fila will increase by 10% to 20% year-on-year, while in the fourth quarter, the retail value of Fila will increase by 25% to 30% year-on-year; ANTA's other brands also maintained high growth rates online and offline in the fourth quarter, exceeding their growth targets.
At present, Anta's globalization strategy has achieved phased results: FILA has become a super brand with annual sales of more than 30 billion yuan, Amer Sports has successfully listed in the United States and is expected to become a Chinese concept stock that has raised more than US$1 billion, and brands such as Arc'teryx and Salomon continue to become popular in the Chinese market.
In terms of acquiring, operating and managing global brands, ANTA already has two major masterpieces, FILA and AMER Sports, but the internationalization of ANTA's main brand has not stopped, and it has made frequent moves in the past two years.
In 2023, ANTA will sign NBA basketball player Kyrie Irving as its spokesperson and will launch an exclusive personal product line for Irving. In addition, Kyrie Irving will be personally involved in the design of his own logo and personal product line as Chief Creative Officer.
Owen has publicly stated, "My signature shoe line has brought my previous brand to over $2.6 billion in revenue over the past seven years. I can safely say that I am very competitive and dominant in the sneaker market. "Spokesperson marketing is a common tool used by ANTA Group, and Carey Owen, as the brand ambassador of ANTA, will help ANTA open up a broader North American market.
In addition to Owen's endorsement, Anta also established an international business department in Southeast Asia. Following the establishment of a branch in Southeast Asia in 2022, ANTA opened a subsidiary in Thailand in February 2023 and opened its first store in Bangkok at the end of October. As of November 2023, ANTA has about 40 stores in the Philippines and Malaysia, and 4 stores in Singapore.
According to the fourth quarter report and annual results announcement, ANTA's retail sales in 2023 achieved a high-single-digit growth compared to 2022, and in the fourth quarter, ANTA achieved a year-on-year growth of 10% to 20%.
On January 19, 2024, Ding Shizhong said in his speech at the Group's 2023 annual summary meeting that "winning battles is the unchanging belief of ANTA Group", and that winning battles in the past relied on teamwork, strategy and will, and in the future, it is necessary to form the faith, ideology and ability to win battles.
Amer Sports' IPO in the U.S. stock market is the first victory of ANTA Group in 2024, will the internationalization of ANTA's main brand be the second victory? Let's wait and see.
Header image**: Amersports Ski Service Center.