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An investment group backed by Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai has bought a 12 per cent stake in Golden Goose in a deal that values the Italian luxury sports shoe brand at more than €2.2bn, according to people briefed on the situation.
The deal with Hong Kong-based Blue Pool Capital allows Golden Goose’s private equity owner Permira to cash out some of its investment five years after paying just under €1.3bn to buy the business from Carlyle, which had bought it at a €400mn valuation in 2017 and retained a minority stake.
It also comes seven months after Permira pulled a planned listing of the maker of distressed-look trainers in which it was seeking a lower valuation than that achieved in Tuesday’s deal.
The transaction with Blue Pool comes at a time when private equity groups are under pressure to return cash to investors after being hit by a slowdown in dealmaking as rising interest rates dragged on company valuations and made exits more difficult, particularly via listings on European exchanges.
Permira’s acquisition of Golden Goose came just before the Covid-19 pandemic, at a time when rock-bottom interest rates were still keeping borrowing costs low and company valuations high.
It abandoned Golden Goose’s initial public offering last June after bookrunners suggested it would price near the bottom of a previously anticipated range, valuing the company at less than €2bn, the Financial Times previously reported.
While the book was roughly four times subscribed at that price, executives of the London-based buyout group started worrying when French President Emmanuel Macron called snap parliamentary elections, leading shares in other luxury groups to tank and big investors to scrap major commitments to buy Golden Goose shares.
Market participants said at the time that Permira’s record was also a sensitive issue.
Dr Martens, which the group listed in 2021, now trades 80 per cent below its IPO price and has issued multiple profit warnings. French cyber security company Exclusive Networks, which Permira listed in 2021 at €20 per share, now trades at €18.90.
Talks to sell a stake in Golden Goose to Blue Pool started shortly after Permira pulled the IPO, the trainer maker said in a statement, adding that the company had more than doubled its revenues since 2020.
In the nine months to September 2024, Golden Goose reported 12 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, driven primarily by its direct-to-consumer channel, which grew 18 per cent in the period.
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