Amer Sports buys Peak Performance, adds to athleisure and street offer

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 30, 2018

Amer Sports said on Monday that it’s accelerating its presence in softgoods by acquiring the Peak Performance athleisure and streetwear brand for DKK1.9 billion (€255 million).

The Finnish company has acquired all the shares and related businesses of Peak Performance from Danish fashion firm IC Group and is using its own cash reserves as well as bank financing to fund the purchase, which should complete during the summer. 

Stockholm-based Peak Performance is a major premium sports fashion brand with net sales of almost DKK1.08 billion (€145 million). Profit on an EBIT basis was DKK123 million (€16.5 million) in the last 12 months.

Peak Performance has a strong presence in the North and Central European markets, and also trades beyond Europe. It has evolved from its skiwear heritage to become a more broadly spread sportswear brand of late. And it has made much of the sports-as-fashion trend with a strong streetwear edge. More than 40% of its sales are womenswear and around 45% is direct-to-consumer.

The 300 Peak Performance employees will now become part of Amer and the purchase should deliver around €10 million in annual synergies over the next few years. The company also said it will have a "minor" positive impact on its financial results this year.

Amer added that the outerwear and streetwear brand “is distinctively positioned versus our current brand portfolio and it has a strong relevancy in sports fashion, and moreover a significant share of sales in womenswear and direct-to-consumer.”

It also said that the purchase is another important step forward in its longer term target of selling more than €1.5 billion in softgoods.

And what about IC Group’s part in all this? That company said Monday that the decision to sell comes after a strategic review of the brand over the last six months and it hailed both the price it achieved and the fact that it believes it has found the right buyer to take the the brand forward.

It added that during a transition period of six to 12 months following the completion of the sale, IC will continue to provide support and services to Peak Performance “on a cost-covered basis."

Chairman Peter Thorsen said: “It has been a long and thorough sales process with many keen and qualified buyers providing the optimal  terms for the divestment of Peak Performance. Not only did we succeed in negotiating the absolute right price for the asset on behalf of all our shareholders, we also managed to identify the right new, long-term owner. An owner who both has the skills, capacity and resources to accelerate the Peak Performance strategy in order for the brand to exploit its large international potentials as we believe it holds and deserves.”

The net cash proceeds from the divestment are expected to amount to  between DKK1.71 billion and DKK1.8 billion. The proceeds are expected to be distributed to shareholders as an extraordinary dividend on final closing of the agreement.