Investment fund takes Skechers off stock exchange

Investment group 3G Capital is taking Skechers off the stock exchange. The fund seen a bid of 9.4 billion dollars (8.3 billion euros) for the Californian sneaker brand, which has been hit badly by the Trump tariffs, accepted.

Uncertainty

Skechers was listed on the stock exchange for 23 years, but now sees 3G Capital taking ownership of the brand. The timing is perhaps not coincidental: Skechers makes the majority of its sneakers in countries such as Vietnam and China, which are being hit hard by the higher import tariffs imposed by the United States. The uncertain outlook has been weighing the stock price down.

Skechers, which had a turnover of over nine billion dollars (eight billion euros) last year, is the third sneaker brand in the world, after Nike and Adidas. The retailer has more than 5,300 stores in 180 countries. In Europe, the brand is growing strongly, hence the building of a new 200,000 sqm European distribution centre in Belgium.

3G Capital was founded in 2004 by Brazilian investors Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Sicupira and Marcel Herrmann Telles and is also a shareholder in AB InBev, Restaurant Brands International (the group behind Burger King) and Kraft Heinz.