TowerBrook Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in Odlo Sports Group, paying between one and two times the company’s annual revenues which grew last year by 20 percent to about 120 million Swiss francs (€76m-$95m). The $2.5 billion international investment company, which has offices in London and New York, has bought the shares of a Swiss equity fund, Partners Group, and of Didi Serena, a key figure in the company since 1979. For TowerBrook, which recently bought a big French engineering group, GSE, this is the second investment in Europe.
Odd Lofterød, son of the Norwegian entrepreneur who founded Odlo in 1946, remains as chief executive with a minority stake. Other members of the management and a private German investor still own small shares in the Swiss sports underwear specialist, which has been developing recently runningwear, skiwear and other types of outerwear. The skiwear line is named after a Norwegian Nordic ski champion, Bjørn Daehlie.
As manager of Trisport, Serena built up Odlo’s distribution in Switzerland and then brought the brand over there from Norway. In exchange for selling his minority stake in Odlo, Serena has built up to a controlling interest his stake in another joint Swiss company, LK International, named after the Norwegian ski champion Lasse Kjus, by taking over the remaining shares that Odlo had in the firm. Kjus retains a minority stake in LKI. Serena has left Odlo’s board of directors to concentrate on LKI, where he remains as chairman and chief executive.
LKI’s sales grew by 30 percent last year and are expected to double to more than €15 million in 2005. To help support the sales momentum of its Kjus System Skiwear line, Serena has hired a new marketing manager, Pirmin Oklé, who has been responsible for marketing and retailing at Nike in Switzerland for the past four years. Furthermore, his 28-year-old son Nico Serena will act as area sales manager for LKI from next August, handling also key accounts. He has been with the company in various functions for four years.
Serena has been directly responsible for sales and marketing at LKI since the departure last October of a former general manager, Erik Myhren, after four and a half years with the company (see following story). At that time Serena hired an experienced sourcing manager, Roman Stepek, who previously worked for important production firms in the Far East and as managing director of an Austrian brand of sportswear fashion. He also brought in a chief operating officer, Rieter Holzmann, who was previously at Odlo.
