May 19, 2020
Struggling Billabong receives $150mn lifeline offer from Quiksilver
2 min
Two of Australia’s iconic fashion brands could be about to merge after Quiksilver tabled a bid of around AU$198mn for loss-making Billabong.
One of the country’s most well-known sports apparel sellers, Billabong has struggled to turn a profit in recent times, registering losses in four out of the past five years. This year it lost around $76mn, three times the loss it made in 2016.
Quiksilver, now known as Boardriders but still selling clothes under the original name, offered $1 per share, a 28.2% premium when judged against Thursdays close price.
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One party with an interest in both companies is US private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management, which owns 19% of Billabong, while funds it manages also has a majority interest in Boardriders.
The offer to Billabong is subject to unanimous approval of the board, which as appointed Goldman Sachs as its financial advisor and Allens as its legal counsel.
Oaktree helped it to become a private company after it declared bankruptcy in 2015. Back in 2012, Billabong rejected a takeover bid of more than four times the $198mn offered by Boardriders, made by TPG Capital Management.
As well as Quiksilver, Boardriders is home to RVCA, Element, Von Zipper and Honolua Surf Company brands.
Jun 8, 2021
Timeline: India takes unicorn leap with six in five days
2 min
We chart an historic week in India’s startup tech industry, where from April 5-9 the country achieved six unicorns
We chart an historic week in India’s tech industry, where in just five days, between 5-9 April 2021, the country achieved six new unicorns, bringing India’s total to 10 in 2021 to date, an immense unicorn leap from just seven in 2020 and six in 2019.
April 5: Meesho
India’s first social commerce unicorn, Meesho raised US$300m from SoftBank, Facebook and Shunwei Capital, giving the Bangalore-based startup a US$2.1bn valuation, a threefold jump from its previous funding round in 2019. Founded in 2015 by two IIT-Delhi graduates, Meesho connects producers and resellers, helping small businesses sell through social media. It has 45m customers and has enabled 13m entrepreneurs to start their online businesses with no investment.
April 6: CRED
Founded just over two years ago, Bangalore-based credit card repayment app CRED raised US$215m from Falcon Edge Capital and Coatue, nearly trebling its valuation to US$2.2bn from its January US$80m round. Allowing customers to pay off their credit card debt while earning CRED coins which they cash in for rewards, CRED has grown rapidly during COVID-19, doubling its customer base to nearly 6 million in a year.
April 7: API Holdings / Groww
The first epharmacy startup to gain unicorn status, PharmEasy (API Holdings), which has digitised 60,000 brick and mortar pharmacies and 400 doctors across India, raised US$350m in a round led by Prosus Ventures. Founded by four former Flipkart employees as a way of making investing simple, investment platform Groww became India’s second-youngest fintech unicorn, raising US$83m in Series D funding led by Tiger Global, quadrupling its previous round in September.
April 8: ShareChat
New Delhi-grown social media startup ShareChat, founded in 2016 by Mohalla Tech raised US$502m from Lightspeed Ventures, Tiger Global, Twitter and Snap taking its raised total over six rounds to US$766m and pushing its valuation to US$2.1bn. The funding will be used to grow its user base and short video platform Moj, which launched in 2020 following TikTok’s ban in India. The regional language startup claims 280m users.
April 9: Gupshup
AI-led conversational message startup joined the unicorn club after raising US$100m from Tiger Global giving it a ten-fold valuation of US$1.4bn. The smart messaging platform, which has seen accelerated growth during the pandemic, was founded in Bangalore in 2005 by serial entrepreneur Beerud Sheth, whose online freelancing platform Elance is now listed. Gupshup’s API enables 100,000+ businesses to build messaging and conversation experiences across 30+ communication channels.
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