Beachwear-to-athletic retailing licensor authentic brands postpones initial public offering, has talks with Apollo Global Management about private equity deal
Beachwear-to-athletic retailing licensor authentic brands has postponed its initial public offering by up to one month and said it had begun talks with private equity firm Apollo Global Management about a possible private equity deal.
Apollo, which agreed to buy some of original Brands’ brands including Aeropostale, Buffalo and Hollister Co in 2017, has agreed to pay $50m for a $50m stake in the underlying business, primarily to secure protection against competing bids.
Authentic Brands planned to raise up to $345m in the offering, valuing the company at $1.58bn.
In a letter to underwriters that was seen by Reuters, Authentic Brands Chairman Jeffry Aronsson said an IPO was the right way to raise money for investments and buy back stock for current shareholders but the market remained “neutral” and the company decided to delay the sale for a time.
“I’m not saying we are terminating the IPO process. We still have visibility on it,” he said.
Chief executive Julian Geiger said Apollo had already secured $40m in financing to fund the offering and would open a deal during the first half of the year. He did not provide any further details.
Authentic Brands said it would use the IPO proceeds to repay debt.
The IPO would have valued the company at $975m to $1.22bn and represented 37-51 per cent of the business, it said.
A full copy of the letter obtained by Reuters is available here.
Authentic Brands said in December that Goldman Sachs was an underwriter on the IPO.