Invus Group is reportedly the leading potential bidder for Rapha, the upmarket British cycling apparel brand, with a price tag estimated in the range of £200 million (€224.1m-$261.4m). Sky News has reported that the U.S. equity investment firm is the frontrunner on a shortlist of just two remaining parties interested in acquiring Rapha – the other being Investindustrial, an Italian private equity firm with a sizeable stake in Aston Martin.
Invus Group is a firm financed by an affluent European family, which made a particularly juicy deal with the sale of Weight Watchers a few years ago. Both investment groups are supposedly interested in Rapha's strong brand equity. The price tag for Rapha would reportedly amount to 20 times annual profits.
Talks around Rapha's potential sale have been doing the rounds for several months. Other investors that were previously said to have an interest in Rapha, such as Advent International and Texas Pacific Group, have apparently withdrawn from the race. Other interested parties may well surface at a later stage, the British broadcaster added.
One of the current shareholders is Active Private Equity, an investment firm, and Simon Mottram, the branding consultant who launched Rapha in 2004. The sellers have appointed William Blair, an investment bank, to advise them on the sale.
The brand's sales were up by 30 percent to £63 million (€70.6m-$82.3m) in the year to last January, and sales were reported to have increased by 40 percent so far this year. Some of that comes from the brand's international expansion, as Rapha has been opening stores in cities from Copenhagen to Chicago and Seoul.
Rapha gained international prominence with a four-year deal to outfit Team Sky. However, the deal ended last year and Chris Froome won his fourth Tour de France earlier this month wearing Castelli gear.
