Anta is a step closer toward officially owning a major stake in Puma after Chinese regulatory authorities approved its $1.8 billion purchase worth 29 percent of the German sportswear maker.
The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation cleared the deal on Sunday, which is set to close by the end of the year and will catapult Anta into an even larger power on the global footwear and apparel stage.
In January, after months of speculation over potential suitors, Anta revealed that it would purchase the majority stake in Puma from Artémis, the investment group which is controlled by the Pinault family.
Puma is still embedded in a major turnaround effort that dates back to at least January 2025 when the company began cutting costs after struggling the previous year. In July 2025, Arthur Hoeld took over as CEO and defined the year as a “reset” that would stretch into a multiyear plan of product revisions and how it would approach certain global markets.
By February 2026, the company slashed around 1,400 corporate roles just after Anta’s acquisition was revealed.
Anta was thought to be a frontrunner in taking over the majority stake in Puma even as sources within Artémis indicated that the Pinault family would consider a sale that reflected a favorable value of the brand and not its revamped state, which pushed its market value down.
Still, after the details of the acquisition were made public, Anta was adamant about keeping Puma as a separately operated entity. But both companies quickly began working on Puma’s next generation Nitro foam in March after revealing that they had established a joint factory with longtime Anta partner Shincell in Suzhou, China.
The brands planned to research new materials and high-performance midsole components and the move was the first obvious sign that Anta was wasting little time injecting its own formula in trying to be a resourceful part of Puma’s turnaround. Once the deal is complete, Anta will seek a sizable presence on Puma’s supervisory board and it’s likely that more changes are on the way, with both brands taking advantage of their distinct positioning in the marketplace.
In announcing the acquisition, Anta said it is not seeking a full takeover of Puma and intends to maintain its operational independence but also indicated it will seek “adequate representation” on the company’s supervisory board.
Anta was founded in 1991 by Ding Shizhong and is based in Jinjiang, Fujian, China and fueled its rapid growth through acquisitions and boosting its namesake core brand as a sportswear force domestically. The company sits as the third largest worldwide in the market behind Nike and Adidas and has been on a mission to expand.
By pulling in the rights to Fila and taking a major stake in Amer Sports, Anta’s portfolio quickly increased, with Arc’teryx, Armada, Atomic, ATEC, DeMarini, EvoShield, Louisville Slugger, Peak Performance, Salomon and Wilson all falling under its umbrella while forging partnerships with NBA stars Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson for its main brand.
In 2023, after a major restructuring, Xu Yang was appointed as CEO of Anta brand and leaned heavily into a retail expansion of sub-brands that tapped into a variety of customers with the Anta Champon, Super Anta, SV, Anta Arena, Anta Palance and Anta Zero store concepts targeting affluent buyers, boutique shoppers and those who wanted the company’s core products.
That expansion also included Anta’s first flagship in the United States, which opened in Beverly Hills in February. The bold moves came at the expense of the company making deep investments in the store rollouts but ultimately resonated with consumers domestically, while the California store could be seen as the brand’s test of making a deeper imprint significantly far from its homeland.
