Quiksilver, Inc. announced it has successfully completed its previously announced acquisition of Skis Rossignol S.A. Quiksilver now owns directly or indirectly approximately 94% of Rossignol, with over 95% of the voting rights, and anticipates acquiring additional shares through a second tender offer period that opened yesterday, which would be followed by a mandatory squeeze out if an additional 1% is acquired. Rossignol owns and operates a diversified portfolio of brands including Rossignol, Dynastar, Lange, and Look in winter sports, as well as Cleveland Golf. Rossignol's revenues totaled approximately $589 million for the twelve months ended March 31, 2005.
The combination of Quiksilver and Rossignol creates a global leader in the outdoor sports market, generating annual sales of apparel, wintersports equipment, golf equipment, shoes, and accessories totaling approximately $2 billion on a pro forma basis for the twelve months ended April 30, 2005. Quiksilver continues to believe that the acquisition will be accretive to earnings per share by approximately 2 cents to 3 cents in its fiscal year ending October 31, 2005.
Robert B. McKnight Jr., chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Quiksilver, Inc., commented, “This is an incredibly exciting day for both Quiksilver and Rossignol. We have joined together a stable of strong, authentic, lifestyle brands that extend across multiple product categories in the outdoor market and reach millions of consumers around the world. Rossignol has been a leading alpine brand for decades and benefits from a tremendous heritage. Like Quiksilver, their team has a true commitment to performance and passion for sports and the outdoors. We look forward to leveraging each other's strengths and to fully capitalizing on the many new and exciting growth opportunities in our future. Over its long history, Rossignol has come to represent a compelling lifestyle, and just like Quiksilver, we believe it will be embraced by many more people as we communicate the message.”
Bernard Mariette, president of Quiksilver, Inc., commented, “The opportunities created with this acquisition are tremendous and numerous. We believe there is an excellent strategic fit between Quiksilver and Rossignol, and we are committed to using our global infrastructure to maximize our new position as the world's leading outdoor company. Perhaps the greatest synergy of all, however, is the relationships of our people. We've started to plan our future together, and the long-standing values cultivated by Mr. Laurent Boix-Vives are the same values held by Quiksilver. These values will form the foundation of our merged company, and there is a definite excitement about the future as we look together at our combined potential.”
The company also stated that it has named Jean-Francois Gautier as president of Rossignol. Mr. Gautier has managed an investment fund for the past five years and was the president of wintersports equipment maker, Salomon, from 1990 to 1998.
Mr. Mariette continued, “We are thrilled to have someone of Jean-Francois' caliber join our senior management team. Jean-Francois is a highly respected industry veteran with significant, global experience and alpine expertise. His insight and leadership capabilities will be very valuable to us as we evolve Rossignol's global infrastructure and industrial capabilities. We have developed a thoughtful integration plan, which incorporates both growth opportunities as well as cost rationalization, and we look forward to sharing more specifics about our plans and progress in the near future. As an early step, we are very happy to be launching Roxy skis, boots, bindings and poles for the upcoming season. Roxy has represented women's sports from its beginnings, and broadening its wintersports products from snowboarding to alpine skiing is a natural, especially with the technology of Dynastar, Lange and Look behind it.”
Mr. McKnight concluded, “Our alliance with Rossignol represents another milestone in our company's history and a logical and important step in our global expansion strategy. We have clearly transcended our humble beginnings on the beaches of California to become a world-wide, leading, lifestyle company. Our success to date is directly related to our ongoing commitment to the same core ideals on which we built Quiksilver; creativity, adventure, individual expression, a love of the outdoors and a passion for our lifestyle.”
