Briscoe Group ups investment in Kathmandu

Briscoe Group ups investment in Kathmandu via placement

By Rebecca Howard

March 21 (BusinessDesk) - Briscoe Group participated in the capital raising announced by Kathmandu Holdings, buying 2.57 million shares from the institutional placement for a cost of $5.6 million. It also intends to participate in the share purchase plan.

“We are very supportive of Kathmandu’s initiative to diversify the business and position it for greater international growth," said Briscoe managing director Rod Duke in a statement to the NZX.

Earlier today, Kathmandu said it had successfully raised $40 million through an institutional share placement of approximately 18.5 million new fully paid ordinary shares at a price of $2.16 per share. It intends to raise as much as $10 million selling shares to eligible retail shareholders in Australia and New Zealand for the same share price.

The funds will be used to partly pay for its purchase of US footwear supplier Oboz Footwear for US$60 million in cash and a potential earn-out of up to US$15 million based on an earnings target for the 2018 calendar year.

Prior to the capital raising, Briscoe Group had a 19.8 percent stake in Kathmandu and earlier this month Duke said Briscoe Group it is an "an interested observer of Kathmandu's performance and of potential opportunities in the industry more broadly."

Kathmandu's board rebuffed a Briscoe takeover offer in 2015, offering five of its own shares for every nine Kathmandu shares plus 20 cents cash, which at the time was an implied offer of $1.80 a share.

Briscoe shares rose 1.1 percent to $3.69 and Kathmandu gained 2.5 percent to $2.46.

(BusinessDesk)

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