Anta Sports is set to acquire a 29 percent stake of Puma from the Pinault family for $1.8 billion and become the German sportswear maker’s largest shareholder, according to numerous published reports on Tuesday.
The Chinese company will pay nearly $42 dollars per share in an all-cash deal that is major shift in the latest chapter of ongoing speculation about the fate of Puma.
“We believe Puma’s share price over the past few months does not fully reflect the long-term potential of the brand,” Anta chairman Ding Shizhong said in a statement.
For the bulk of the year in 2025, the company has navigated a wave of headlines and internal moves aimed at turning around the struggling brand.
With the move, Anta arrives as a lifeline for Puma and now has a controlling stake that was previously thought to have not been for sale from the Pinault family’s Artemis holding company.
Anta was reportedly one of at least six companies which made serious offers for either the Artemis portion or for Puma outright.
Artemis acquired its position in Puma in 2007 when it took control of Kering, which was positioning itself to focus on its luxury nameplates like Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Creed and Alexander McQueen.
Any deal for Puma would have needed approval from the Pinault’s who initially seemed reluctant to sell their stake at a time when the company’s value has floundered.
Despite being in the midst of a turnaround effort, by August last year Puma told its shareholders that it expected to take a full-year loss as it revised its financial outlook for 2025.
Puma took out $700 million in bridge loans and credit lines in December to help infuse cash into the brand in what it described was a move in “increasing overall flexibility and headroom.”
The reshuffling of its finances came at the end of a year where the company brought on Arthur Hoeld as its new CEO in April and announced 1,400 job cuts as part of a larger revamp by 2027.
Anta is a sportswear powerhouse in China and also
owns Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson and brands as a majority shareholder in a partnership with Amer Sports.
The company has made a name for itself in the United States as part of collaborations with basketball stars Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson on signature sneakers. But the company has also forged its presence in running with several new and revamped performance shoes in the pipeline for 2026.
