Pinault family to offload €1.5bn Puma stake to China’s Anta Sports
Sale of 29% share comes as German sportswear group restructures to keep pace with rivals
France’s billionaire Pinault family has agreed a €1.5bn deal to sell its entire stake in sportswear brand Puma to Chinese group 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. Puma’s shares closed at €21.63 on Monday.
The sale, announced in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Tuesday, will make the Chinese company Puma’s largest shareholder. The size of the stake is below a 30 per cent threshold at which German law requires a mandatory takeover offer to be made to other shareholders.
The deal comes during a turnaround effort by the German sportswear group, which has lost ground to leaders Nike and Adidas and faces competition from fast-growing rivals such as New Balance, On and Hoka.
Puma 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.
Since its 2007 Hong Kong listing, Anta has built up a portfolio of foreign brands, including gaining the mainland Chinese rights to Fila and Japanese ski brand Descente.
In 2019, it led a consortium’s purchase of Amer Sports, which owns the high-end outerwear brand Arc’teryx, tennis racquet maker Wilson and baseball bat manufacturer Louisville Slugger. After relisting Amer in the US in 2024, it now has a 39 per cent stake.
Last year, Anta purchased outdoor brand Jack Wolfskin from Topgolf Callaway Brands for $290mn.
Activewear is seen as a strong growth segment in China’s consumer market where overall demand has been sluggish for years amid weaker economic momentum.
Anta, which had revenues of Rmb70.8bn ($10.1bn) in 2024, said its purchase of the Puma stake represented an important step in the company’s “execution of its ‘single-focus, multi-brand, and globalisation’ strategy”.
It added that it had a “proven and well evidenced track record in supporting multi-brand transformation, value rejuvenation, and high-quality growth across both the China and global markets”.
Anta shares rose 3 per cent on Tuesday after the announcement.
The company has been expanding its own brand in the US, where it produces basketball trainers for sponsored NBA players including Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving.
Analysts at Jefferies this month said they were “strongly against” a deal with Puma over fears it would dilute minority stakes, given the company’s convention of conducting an equity placement after acquisitions “regardless of its balance sheet conditions”.
“Anta needs to address certain issues, such as the deteriorating health of the Anta brand in China, as well as slowing Descente, in our view. The involvement in Puma’s operations may occupy more management resources,” they wrote.
Anta said in its filing it expected the Puma stake purchase to “enhance its presence and brand recognition in the global sporting goods market, thereby strengthening its overall international competitiveness”.
Puma shares halved in value last year, hammered by multiple profit warnings over concerns around US tariffs on the Asian countries where it makes its products.
The company installed Arthur Hoeld, an Adidas veteran, to lead its turnaround efforts after ousting his predecessor in April. The turmoil fuelled speculation about a potential takeover and what the Pinault family might do with its stake.