Airesis sells Boards & More to Emeram Capital Partners

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
Dec 2, 2013

The company Airesis is preparing to sell is up and coming. The Swiss investment company announced it has signed a deal for the sale of its majority stake in Boards & More, which posted sales of 45 million euros at the end of June 2013, up 11% compared to the same period last year.

The German investment fund Emeram Capital Partners is poised to take over Boards & More for nearly 40 million euros, whose brands include Fanatic, North Kiteboarding, North Sails Windsurf and ION. Airesis had acquired the company in 2005.

"We are a company specializing in sports brands. We take companies in critical situations and orchestrate their comeback by taking financial and managerial risks," explained Yves Corthesy, CFO of Airesis. "The last two years at Airesis, we noticed that the brands were performing above average in their market. We asked ourselves whether to continue in this new stage of development, which is somewhat removed from our DNA, or consider the possibility of a sale. This summer we were on the lookout for take-over offers to see if a candidate could fulfill our requirements for continuity in the project, in management and in terms of price."

The German Emeram Capital, which focuses on investments in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, looks to have placed the winning bet, with the transaction scheduled to close in mid-December.

For the Boards & More teams, this new owner offers the security of experience in the apparel industry. The creators of the investment fund, launched in 2012, say their holdings include big names like Arena, PVH and Tommy Hilfiger.

Regarding Airesis, while the company explains they are constantly looking for investment opportunities in sports brands, it emphasized that projects can only be identified once the agreement is finally concluded.