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Freshfields advises consortium on €4.6bn acquisition of Amer Sports Corporation
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) has advised a consortium comprising ANTA Sports Products Limited (‘ANTA’), FountainVest Partners (Asia) Limited (‘FountainVest’), Anamered Investments Inc (‘Anamered’) and Mount Jiuhua Investment Limited (‘Mt Jihua’) (together, ‘the Consortium’) on the acquisition of Amer Sports Corporation (‘Amer’) by way of a voluntary public tender offer made in accordance with the Finnish Securities Market Act (746/2012, as amended). The acquisition valued Amer at approximately €4.6bn.The tender offer was announced on 7 December 2018 and received approximately 98.11 per cent acceptances from shareholders by the close of the initial and subsequent tender offer periods. The acquisitions under the initial tender offer and subsequent tender offer closed on 29 March 2019 and 2 April 2019 respectively. The acquisition was financed through a mix of equity and new credit facilities.
The remaining ~2 per cent of Amer shares that were not tendered into the public offer will be acquired by the Consortium through mandatory redemption proceedings which will commence shortly. Following these proceedings, the consortium will hold 100 per cent of the shares in Amer and intends to have the company delisted from Nasdaq Helsinki.
Amer Sports Corporation is a Finnish headquartered sporting goods company with internationally-recognised brands including Salomon, Wilson, Arc’teryx, Suunto, Peak Performance, Precor and Atomic. Amer’s business has a presence in all major markets.
ANTA is a sportswear company in China with brands including ANTA, FILA, DESCENTE, SPRANDI, KINGKOW and KOLON SPORT. It is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. FountainVest is a private equity firm with close to US$5bn of assets under management and a history of successful investments across Asia, Europe and the United States. Anamered is a special purpose investment vehicle established by Dennis “Chip” Wilson, the founder of lululemon Athletica Inc. Mt Jiuhua is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tencent Holdings Limited, the investment holding conglomerate listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The Freshfields team advising on the deal was led by partners Edward Freeman, Daniel French and Alex Mitchell, with assistance from partner Alastair Mordaunt.
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