Frasers Group، التجزئة英国 which is controlled by Mike Ashley، قد بنت شبه حصة 10% في Under Armour، صانع الملابس الرياضية الأمريكية الذي يعاني من صعوبات. اشترى Frasers 16.6 مليون سهم في Under Armour، أو 8.8% من الشركة، وفقًا لتقديم filed في 1 أكتوبر إلى regulators American. الشركة英国، التي are best known as owner of Sports Direct، لها record of snapping up stakes in other retail chains. كما كانت على tear dealmaking overseas as it seeks to grow beyond its home market. Last month، رفعت stake في German fashion brand Hugo Boss إلى 48%، move that came a month after the company acquired struggling UK department store Harvey Nichols. تأسست من قبل American football player Kevin Plank في 1996، استمتع Under Armour بنمو انفجاري بينما استولت على حصة من Nike و Adidas. لكن shares في Baltimore-based company have plunged since peaking في 2015، after a botched expansion into athleisure wear hurt investor confidence. They closed at $4.88 on Tuesday.
Plank، who is attempting to revive the brand، said in August he was focused on simplifying the business and selling more premium goods at full price، which typically have better profit margins than discounted goods. posted retailer 3% fall in revenue to $1.1bn في three months to end of June، dragged down by weak performance in North America. Plank said the brand was facing a challenging consumer demand environment، an issue also affecting many of its larger peers. Those include Nike، which last week set out plans to cut jobs and said it was expecting a decline in revenue في coming year as sales stalled in markets from US to China.
Last year، اشترى Frasers The Webster، US luxury retailer، بينما في Australia built a sizeable stake في footwear retailer Accent Group و في June launched a hostile takeover bid for the business. Frasers also expanded through acquisitions في South Africa as part of broader push to build an international retail group. Group revenue rose 8.7% to £5.3bn في year to April 26، driven by international revenue growth of 59.2%.
المصدر: Financial Times Companies · لخّصه HeadlinesBriefing