L Catterton to sell approximately one billion dollars worth of Birkenstock shares

Financial investor L Catterton is selling a block of Birkenstock shares worth approximately one billion dollars. The sandal manufacturer plans to buy back half of these shares. Following the completion of the transaction, scheduled for this Monday, the investor's stake will fall below 50 percent.

The offering comprises 25.5 million ordinary shares at a public offering price of 39.35 dollars per share, Birkenstock Holding plc announced on Thursday. The seller is BK LC Lux MidCo S.à r.l., a company affiliated with L Catterton. An option grants the underwriting bank, J.P. Morgan, the right to purchase an additional 3.8 million shares from the seller within 30 days.

Birkenstock itself is not issuing any shares and will not receive any proceeds from the sale. In such a secondary offering, existing shares are transferred from the major shareholder to new shareholders; the company is not financially involved in the transaction. The transaction is scheduled to close this Monday, although confirmation of its completion was still pending in the morning.

Birkenstock intends to buy back approximately 12.76 million of the offered shares, exactly half, for 39.18 dollars per share, the same price paid by the seller's bank. The company had announced a budget of up to 500 million dollars for this purpose, meaning only the other half of the shares will reach the stock market. The buyback is conditional upon the completion of the offering, and the repurchased shares will subsequently be cancelled.

The sale follows a strong quarter. Birkenstock increased its revenue by 13 percent to 719.5 million euros in the three months to June 30. The company subsequently raised its forecast for the 2026 financial year, although tariffs and currency effects impacted the gross margin.

According to a prospectus supplement filed by Birkenstock with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), L Catterton recently held a 55.9 percent majority stake. Following the transaction, this stake will decrease to 44.75 percent, or 42.43 percent if the option is fully exercised. The Arnault family, through Financière Agache, and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) are involved in the investment company. In early August, Alexandre Arnault resigned from his position on the footwear manufacturer's board of directors. The operational headquarters is in Linz am Rhein, while the publicly listed holding company is based in London.

This article was created with the help of AI.