The sporting goods manufacturer Puma has a new major shareholder in its Chinese competitor Anta. The group, which includes brands such as Atomic, Fila, Jack Wolfskin, Salomon and Wilson, is taking over the 29 percent stake from the French billionaire Pinault family for a total of around 1.5 billion euros. This is 35 euros per share, as Anta Sports announced on Tuesday in Hong Kong. The price is almost 62 percent above the Xetra closing price on Monday.
Joining Puma could be the first step towards taking over the Adidas competitor. However, Anta emphasized in the statement that there are currently no takeover plans. There has been speculation about Anta joining Puma since last fall. The price of the MDax-listed share has therefore recovered strongly in recent weeks from its multi-year low of EUR 15.30, which was reached in November. On Monday, the Puma shares ended main Xetra trading at 21.63 euros.
Based on this price, Puma is worth 3.2 billion euros on the stock market. Anta’s announcement was well received on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The Anta share price, which was recently under pressure, rose a little more than one percent to 77.40 Hong Kong dollars. The market value of the Chinese company is therefore around 216 billion Hong Kong dollars or the equivalent of around 23 billion euros.