While Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted on a recent earnings call would neither confirm nor deny rumors the company was planning to sell off Reebok, the German-based company is said t be working with JP Morgan to sell the brand.
Adidas is working with the bank on a sale that could take place as soon as early next year, according to the NY Times. According to the Financial Times, investment firms Permira and Triton are among interested buyers.
During the brand’s third-quarter earnings call, Rørsted let it be known he wouldn’t comment on the Reebok rumor but at the same time noted the company would provide a five-year outlook at an investors meeting scheduled for March 2021.
Reebok could potentially sell for $1 billion, a considerable discount from the the approximately $4 billion that Adidas paid for it in 2005.
In addition to uncertainty created by COVID-19, the sale may also be impeded by Adidas’ sale of comfort brand Rockport to Berkshire Partners. Within three years of the sale, the brand filed for bankruptcy and placed some of the blame on Adidas for setting up a sales process that “took meaningfully longer and was significantly more expensive than planned.”
