Apparel cataloger Redcats acquires The Sportsman’s Guide
Redcats USA Inc. is acquiring The Sportsman’s Guide Inc. and making a concerted push into sporting goods, an online retail segment growing at an annual rate of about 25%. Redcats will acquire all of the outstanding shares of The Sportsman`s Guide in a cash merger for a price of $31 per share. The $31 per share price represents a 20.2% premium over the three-month average trading price of $25.80, Redcats says. Redcats values The Sportsman`s Guide at approximately $265 million, including the value of outstanding stock options.
Redcats, No. 25 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, expects to close the purchase of The Sportsman’s Guide, No. 76 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, in the third quarter.
The boards of both companies have approved the transaction and Sportsman’s Guide CEO Gregory Binkley, as well as other senior executives of Sportman’s Guide and The Golf Warehouse, will remain with Redcats. The Sportsman’s Guide will become a business unit of VLP Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Redcats. "The Sportsman`s Guide is a great company with an outstanding product range,” says Redcats CEO Eric Faintreny. “We look forward to working with Greg Binkley, his management team and employees to take The Sportsman`s Guide and Golf Warehouse to a further step of development."
With annual web sales of almost $500 million, Redcats is a catalog and web retailer of apparel and home products, but the acquisition of The Sportsman’s Guide will push the company deeply into the direct marketing of sporting goods, particularly golf. The Sportsman’s Guide acquired The Golf Warehouse in 2004 and now is launching two more e-commerce sites, Baseballsavings.com and Softballsavings.com. The new sites will be developed and maintained by Golf Warehouse and carry more than 11,000 SKUs from brands such as Rawlings and Wilson’s Sports.
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