A large South Korean conglomerate, E-Land, is preparing a bid to acquire Collective Brands for $1.8 billion, together with institutional investors, according to the Bloomberg news agency. Collective is the parent company of Saucony and several other, more casual footwear brands such as Sperry Top-Sider, Keds and Stride-Rite. It also owns a big loss-making international chain of shoe shops, Payless ShoeSource. E-Land is already the licensee in South Korea for New Balance, for two brands of Pentland Group, Ellesse and Berghaus, and for the Italian brand Belfe. It was the Korean licensee of Puma until the end of 2007. It recently acquired an Italian brand of footwear, Lario 1898, and a couple of major Italian brands of women's handbags, Mandarina Duck and Coccinelle. More in the next SGI Europe and in its sister publication, Shoe Intelligence.

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