Prince Sports Management Holdings has completed the sale of $11.67 million worth of new shares as part of a refinancing program designed to reduce some of its debts and to finance new initiatives such as the previously reported start-up of a sales subsidiary in France and the development of the Chinese market.
Nautic Partners and the management, which acquired Prince Sports in 2007, participated in the refinancing.
Prince executives stress that the company continued to generate an operating profit in 2009 in spite of a difficult market situation. Its sales were down by about 8 percent in the U.S., more or less flat in Europe and up sharply in China. On the other hand, as of March 31 orders were up by about 25 percent, with progress in all regions.
The management is particularly pleased with its performance in China, where it now has about 50 employees and offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou reporting to Prince’s country manager, Jane Gao. She was formerly with the company’s Chinese distributor, Pacific Leisure. Prince was the first major tennis brand to set up its own subsidiary in China in 2008.
