South Korean clothing company F&F has acquired Italian sportswear brand Sergio Tacchini for US$63 million, aiming to take a share of the Asian country’s burgeoning tennis apparel and miscellaneous goods market.
The acquisition includes all shares of the US-based Sergio Tacchini Operations, which owns the Sergio Tacchini brand, and Sergio Tacchini IP Holdings, which holds the brand’s intellectual property. The deal is expected to close on July 20.
Sergio Tacchini will join F&F’s portfolio of brands, which includes MLB, Elle Sports and its own beauty label Banila Co.
F&F said the company had paid attention to the current trend in which premium sports life is emerging like golf, and it expects that the demand for tennis apparel will also increase. The deal comes after F&F teamed with Centroid Investment Partners to buy US golf equipment brand TaylorMade from New York-based KPS Capital Partners last year for US$1.8 billion.
Founded by Italian fashion designer and former professional tennis player Sergio Tacchini, the brand was endorsed by tennis champions, including Gabriela Sabatini, Pete Sampras, Martina Hingis and Novak Djokovic.
The company went into bankruptcy in 2007 before being bought by Hong Kong Chinese businessman Billy Ngok the following year. In 2019, the company announced a new ownership structure led by Stefano Maroni, Twin Lakes Capital LLC and B Riley Principal Investments LLC.
