Wilson products at the Paragon Sports store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York on Jan. 4, 2024.
Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Amer Sports, the Finnish athletic company behind the Wilson tennis racket and Arc’teryx, made a muted debut on the public markets Thursday, as shares rose 3% after it priced its initial public offering at a discount.
The stock opened at $13.40 a share on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “AS” and closed at the same price. Based on the closing share price and the company’s 484 million outstanding shares, Amer Sports has a rough market capitalization of about $6.49 billion.
Amer had priced its IPO at $13 per share and raised $1.37 billion in the offering. It had originally expected to offer 100 million shares at $16 to $18 each.
The offering valued Amer at about $6.3 billion, down from a previous valuation of up to $8.7 billion.
When Amer debuted, only 2.5 million shares traded, which indicates little sell-side interest and is low for an offering of 105 million shares. Typically, bookrunners would try to open with around 10% of shares, which would be about 10 million shares.
Amer’s decision to discount its IPO came after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the central bank isn’t ready to start cutting rates, casting a pall over market sentiment and the floundering IPO market.
Wall Street has been eager to see a resurgence in the IPO market after it grounded nearly to a halt over the past two years, but recent debuts, including from German shoemaker Birkenstock, have been muted and failed to impress.
While demand has fallen in the overall consumer discretionary sector, Amer’s finance chief Andrew Page said its target consumers have been resilient and continued to choose its brands.
“Our focus always has been to make the best products in their category in the world. Our products are steeped in innovation, our consumers appreciate quality and innovation and newness,” Page said. “That is at the core of who we…
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