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France’s billionaire Pinault family has agreed to sell its entire €1.5bn stake in sportswear brand Puma to Chinese sporting equipment maker Anta Sports.
Anta will pay €35 a share for the 29.06 per cent stake in Puma held by Artemis, the investment vehicle of the Pinault family whose portfolio includes a controlling stake in luxury group Kering.
The sale comes in the midst of a turnaround effort by Puma, which has lost ground to traditional rivals Nike and Adidas and faces competition from fast-growing rivals such as New Balance, On and Hoka.
The German sportswear group last year pledged to cut 900 jobs by the end of 2026 as part of a restructuring aimed at returning it to growth by 2027.
Anta will become Puma’s largest shareholder as a result of the transaction, which was announced in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday.
The China-headquartered company said its purchase of the minority stake in Puma represented an important step in the company’s “execution of its ‘single-focus, multi-brand, and globalisation’ strategy”.
This is a developing story
