(Yicai) Jan. 23 -- Shares in Anta Sports Products climbed today after the Chinese sportswear giant said it plans to purchase as much as USD220 million worth of shares in the upcoming initial public offering of Finnish sports equipment firm Amer Sports, in which Anta is the biggest shareholder, in New York.

Anta’s share price [HKG: 2020] was trading up 4.4 percent at HKD67 (USD8.50) as of 2.30 p.m.

No formal agreement has been signed and plans may still change, said the Jinjiang-based company, which holds a 56 percent stake in Amer.

Amer is issuing 100 million shares priced at between USD16 and USD18 apiece on the New York stock exchange, the Helsinki-based company said yesterday. Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are underwriting the IPO. The listing is expected to raise as much as USD1.8 billion.

Anta was part of a consortium of investors, which also comprises FountainVest Partners, Tencent Holdings and Canada's Anamered Investments, that bought Amer in 2019 for EUR4.6 billion (USD5 billion). Hong Kong-based FountainVest holds a 16 percent stake, Anamered has 20.6 percent and Tencent 5.6 percent.

Anamered and Shenzhen-based Tencent are also subscribing to the new share issuance for USD220 million and USD70 million worth respectively, according to the IPO prospectus updated yesterday.

Amer expects its net losses for the year 2023 to narrow to between USD204 million and USD234 million from USD253 million in 2022, it said in its latest financial forecast. And revenue should climb around 23 percent to about USD4.3 billion.

Founded in 1950, Amer owns brands such as Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson, Peak Performance and Atomic. It has offices in Helsinki, Munich, Kraków and Shanghai, and has operations in 41 countries around the world.

Editor: Kim Taylor