Wiggle Sold in Complex Deal

Online retailer WIGGLE, which owns other brands like Chain Reaction has been sold and will soon appear on the NYSE, albeit in a changed form

Wiggle has a notable presence in the EU and in the UK. Whilst strongest in the UK, the Wiggle Sport sites perform well on the continent. Wiggle has also been active in the USA for some time albeit with a significantly narrower product range than in Europe. Wiggle has sales of about $500m per year.

Anyway.

Wiggle has just been effectively bought by Signa Sports Group in Austria which probably has revenues in excess of $1bn. However, the reality is more complex so let me have a quick go at explaining

1. All Wiggle Assets are owned by WiggleCRC
2. WiggleCRC is owned by private equity firm Bridgepoint and has been since about 2011.
3. Signa Sports United (SSU) is owned by Signa Holding GmbH  (an Austrian Real Estate company)
4. SSU is initially the umbrella holder of the brand’s Chain Reaction, Wiggle, Bikester, Probikeshop, Campz, Addnature, Tennis-Point, TennisPro, Outfitter and others.
5. Yucaipa Acquisition Corporation (An American private investment firm with historical links to President Clinton) and others are providing the funds for the transactions
6. But SSU has now agreed to list on the NYSE with a valuation of $3.2bn
7. The company, SSU, obviously plans to continue to grow. Specifically by increasing market share in Europe and making more significant efforts in the USA where they are not widely known.

My local bike shop is Sigma Sports which are a completely different organisation and who are also a fairly well-known online cycling/triathlon retailer in the UK. In February 2021 Sigma Sports sold a minority stake in their business to Primary Capital.