Author | Ren Cairu, Yang Dian, Yang Yafei
Edit | Qiao Qian
Anta's acquisition empire has added another son, this time invading the women's yoga footwear field controlled by Lululemon.
On October 16, 2023, ANTA Sporting Goods Co., Ltd. issued the "Acquisition of MAIA ACTIVE Business", announcing that ANTA acquired 75.13% of the equity of MAIA ACTIVE (hereinafter referred to as "MAIA"), the specific purchase price was not announced. By the close, Anta shares were up 0.83% at HK$90.6 per share, with a total market value of HK$256.6 billion.
The official explanation for the reason for the acquisition is that "the acquisition is a good supplement to the women's business segment of the group". One investor who knows MAIA said, "This is the best way for MAIA's early investors to exit, and Anta has been talking to them for a long time." ”
Founded in 2016, MAIA specializes in sportswear designed for Asian women, and is one of lululemon's many local rivals, capturing many female fitness practitioners with explosive items such as waist pants and cloud pants.
"Anta probably saw Lulu's ability to make money." In the eyes of many people in the industry, ANTA's acquisition is full of the meaning of "benchmarking lululemon", after all, the latter's real ability to make money, it is difficult not to make people red.
In July last year, Lululemon's market value reached $35.934 billion, officially surpassing Adidas and becoming the world's second largest sportswear group after Nike by the category of yoga clothing alone. In the fourth quarter of 2022, lululemon began to separate the Chinese market, and in the latest second quarter of 2023, the revenue in the Chinese market increased by 61.32% year-on-year to $278 million, which far exceeded the brand's growth in the United States, Canada and the rest of the world.
In fact, ANTA's interest in women's sports business is not a matter of day or two.
In the past two years, walking into the offline stores of FILA and Anta, it is difficult to ignore the conspicuous huge advertisements for women's outdoor sports, and the main brand Anta's "Guan Xiaotong Same Dance Series" once sold out; FILA launched the "Latte Girl" feature last year, focusing on "small man's waist yoga pants"; Descente, a high-end outdoor brand under ANTA, also launched the "Body Flex" series around women's indoor training, striving to help women sculpt body lines in daily comprehensive training.
But the story is the story, after all, these actions can only be based on a comprehensive brand of "small trouble", to really grab dividends from lululemon, you need a sufficiently segmented, clear recognition of the brand.
For Anta, the "acquisition maniac", acquisition is obviously a more efficient method. You know, in the latest half-year report released by Anta, the largest increase in revenue was "all other brands", an increase of 77.6% year-on-year, the main contributors were Descente and Kolon, in addition to Archaeopteryx and Salomon's parent company Amer Fen's revenue also increased by 37.2% in the first half of the year.
With these acquired brands, Anta has made a lot of money in this wave of outdoor boom, which also responds to what the head Ding Shizhong said in an interview, "With the brand operation ability of today's Chinese companies, the possibility of making a Archaeopteryx or Wilson within 30 years is almost zero, and through acquisitions and taking the Chinese market as a potential growth space, it may complete a rebirth." ”
Nowadays, in the face of the women's sports market, MAIA is undoubtedly a good acquisition target.
MAIA first started online, and since 2019, it has successively opened offline direct stores in the north, upper and wide. According to the official, online sales exceeded 100 million yuan in 2019, and the sales of Double 11 in 2021 doubled year-on-year, with annual sales exceeding 300 million yuan, and more than 500 million yuan in 2022, and entered a comprehensive profit. The relevant person in charge of MAIA revealed to 36Kr that the brand currently has 40 stores in the core business districts of first- and second-tier cities across the country, and the overall state is profitable.
In addition to MAIA, a number of similar brands have emerged during the same period, such as Particle Mania, Runaway Loli, VFU, etc., all of which are trying to challenge lululemon's market share. Under the excitement, MAIA has always been one of the leaders, and has completed four rounds of public financing from 2017 to 2021, backed by well-known investors such as Sequoia Capital, China Growth Capital, Belle International Strategic Investment, etc., with a cumulative financing amount of more than 200 million yuan.
Jiuqian Zhongtai mentioned in the analysis of women's sportswear data in June this year that MAIA's market share in the price range of 200-600 yuan on Tmall and Douyin platforms is in the lead, and the exposure of Xiaohongshu is at a high level, and the offline ping effect is also ahead of most competing products.
The industry's recognition of MAIA is also quite unanimous. A brand operator similar to MAIA told 36Kr that when he learned of MAIA's acquisition, he was meeting with the team to work on Double 11, and his first feeling was anxiety, "I am on the same track, but I feel that I can't see MAIA's taillights anymore." ”
An outdoor practitioner is not surprised by ANTA's choice to acquire MAIA, "ANTA lacks women's sports, relatively speaking, other international yoga brands are not more outstanding." ”
In addition to the significance of ANTA's expansion into women's sports, yoga shoes and clothing, this acquisition is also a footnote for consumer investment to enter the "era of mergers and acquisitions". This is good news for the long-lost consumer venture capital industry.
A number of investors told us that in the past few years, when the consumption of venture capital cooking oil, entrepreneurial projects have raised more than 5-6 times PS, and now looking back, the performance cannot support the valuation, and the problem of listing and exit is more difficult.
Today, mergers and acquisitions have become a trend that has to be done. Judging from the actions of large sports shoes and clothing companies alone, it is possible to manage the leopard - Anta, Li Ning, GAP, etc. are all choosing to win the women's sports market by mergers and acquisitions.
Li Ning is also doing the acquisition of women's sports brands. An example is Danskin, a women's dance sports brand from the United States, which was introduced to the Chinese market in 2016, but unfortunately the brand failed to bring growth to Li Ning, until 2021, when Li Ning reintegrated its women's sports product line and launched a women's fitness series. An intellectual property investor told 36Kr that Li Ning also recently reached an acquisition cooperation with an international sports and leisure brand, and an announcement is expected soon.
Looking at the weak performance of GAP, after the main brand is gone, the acquisition of women's sports brand Athleta can be described as the hope of the entire group. According to data from third-party SimilarWeb, when GAP's main brand was busy shrinking in 2021, Athleta's official website views increased by 39%, and the revenue of all GAP brands declined in the latest fiscal quarter, while Athleta's 1% decline was the lowest. In recent years, a lot of resources have begun to tilt towards it, and in July this year, GAP also appointed a new manager for this sub-brand.
In the context of mergers and acquisitions becoming a general trend, what kind of targets will be more favored?
Li Gangqiang, author of "Good Investment, Better Withdrawal", said that two types of companies are easy to be acquired - companies with revenue and profits, and companies with small market capitalization M&A teams or technologies, while "companies with valuations of more than 1 billion yuan, revenue has not yet grown in scale, and losses are still large" are difficult to be acquired.
Zeng Qiang, a partner of an investment institution, described to us in a simpler way the characteristics of those "easy to be acquired": consumer goods companies with scale, profits, and capital behind them (with exit needs).
One by one, MAIA is fully in line with: annual sales of more than 500 million, occupying a certain market share in the field of yoga clothing, profitable, and standing behind the capital waiting to exit.
AS FOR THE TREND AFTER THE ACQUISITION, ANTA OFFICIALS SAID THAT "THE GROUP'S BRAND OPERATION CAPABILITIES, RETAIL MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES CAN HELP MAIA ACTIVE BETTER DEVELOP ITS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE CHINESE MARKET." "An outdoor brand agent
Shang also told 36Kr that "with Anta's ability and channel coverage, it is not difficult to launch a new brand." ”
From the wild running of Archaeopteryx in the past two years to Salomon's hard to find, ANTA's brand operation ability is obvious to all. THIS MAY BE A GOOD START TO A NEW STORY FOR MAIA ACTIVE.