PE bought a underwear company

The once -popular underwear brand was bought by PE.

The investment community-Wild Consumption Bar learned that the recent private equity fund Platinum Equity announced the acquisition of underwear and swimsuit producers HOP LUN (Hong Kong) LTD.. After the transaction, the founder Erik Ryd will retain important shares and continue to lead the company to develop forward.

As early as February of this year, the Hallon Group was reported to seek for sale, with a valuation of more than 500 million US dollars. The transaction will be completed by Platinum Equity Singapore Office, and BDA PARTNERS Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc..

This is a underwear company founded in Hong Kong, China in 1992. The founder Erik Ryd is a Swiss businessman. Starting from a foundry factory, Erik Ryd led Hearthon Group to take root in Guangdong to extend the production line to inland and abroad. In 2002, Heron launched a red brand 6ixty8ight, which has been firmly in the underwear industry. After thirty years, a family of PE entered the master.

Foreigners sell underwear in Hong Kong

To achieve the top three in the world, now it is sold to PE

In 1992, a Swiss businessman Erik Ryd came to Hong Kong, China. At that time, the wave of reform and opening up was in full swing, and Chinese talents just started wearing modern underwear. Erik Ryd saw the huge potential of the underwear market, and then set up Hop Lun (He Long Company) in Hong Kong.

(Erik Ryd, Picture Source: Hup Lun's official website)

Starting from the foundry of European high -end underwear brands, He Long has eaten the dividend of the times. In 1999, Erik Ryd built the first wholly -owned manufacturing factory in Chang'an Town, Dongguan, in the hottest iron.

Guangdong is the largest production gathering place in underwear nationwide. The Dongguan plant has brought stable rear resources to He Long. Erik Ryd continues to march inland. Wholly -owned factories. In just three years, He Long expanded the customer base from Europe to the US market and signed the first customer Target in the United States.

As the market demand of domestic underwear gradually expands, Erik Ryd realized that foundries are not long -term. However, the transformation is not easy, and many of them have poured the transformation on the way to transform with foundry export. How to transform smoothly and make recognizable brands into the domestic market has become a problem for many underwear companies.

In 2002, Erik Ryd's new brand 6ixty8ight was born in France. The brand is fashionable and simple, the public is mainly at parity, facing young women, and has a clear Nordic style in design. The name of the 6IXTY8IGHT comes from China's digital numerology. Cantonese pronunciation of numbers 6 and 8 is similar to "all the way", which means "eternal good luck".

In 2003, Erik Ryd set up headquarters in Hong Kong and opened the first 6ixty8ight store in Beijing. It was very popular for a while. In this way, Heron has since officially entered the vision of Chinese consumers. Three years later, 6ixTy8ight expanded the product line, and successively launched products such as shirts, dresses, jeans, home uniforms and accessories. Erik Ryd will repeat the success of the year.

(Picture source: hup Lun official website)

Today, 6IXTY8IGHT has become one of the fastest -growing underwear brands in Asia. More than 300 stores are all over the world. Heron has also become the third largest underwear manufacturer in the world. London, New York, Paris, Macau, and other places have established branches, with nearly 30,000 employees worldwide.

Erik Ryd said in this acquisition: "I am proud of our achievements in the past 30 years, and firmly believe that Platinum is the perfect partner of the company's next development stage." Now, with the help of Platinum's operating capabilities, I wonder if Erik Ryd can It moved to the next 30 years again.

According to the data, Platinum Equity, which was acquired by the Plong Group, was founded in 1995. It is a global investment company that manages nearly $ 36 billion in assets and has an investment portfolio of about 50 operating companies. In the past 27 years, Platinum has completed more than 350 acquisitions, involving manufacturing, media entertainment, technology and communications and other industries.

A piece of underwear wears 100 billion rivers and lakes

VC/PE comes

Why does PE also look at the lingerie business?

This is not an example. In June 2022, when a number of consumer companies had a hurry, a underwear brand "Metanosei Pie", which specialized in selling large cups of bra, completed nearly 100 million yuan B financing, led by CICC Consumption Fund, a subsidiary of CICC Capital. Pooth video and KIP capital follow. Founded in 2015, the Metanosei Pai focused on the brand segment of the big cup of underwear at the beginning of the brand.

The founder Dabai was a dad. Because his wife couldn't buy a suitable corset during pregnancy, Dabai saw this blank market, so she was born with the idea of ​​making underwear for big cups. Once the brand was launched, it was favored by female consumers in large breasts. In 2021, the toffee school entered a period of 200%of the rapid growth period, and GMV reached 30 million. Time move forward. In July 2021, NEIWAI completed a $ 100 million round D financing inside and outside. The earliest inside and outside the female steel-free underwear, which focuses on comfort, and is positioned as new middle-class female users aged 25-40. Since its establishment in 2014, eight rounds of financing has been completed internally and outside, and it has been entitled to many institutions such as Qiming Capital, Zhenge Fund, Carey Investment, Qifu Capital, and Xiangfeng Investment.

In January of the same year, UBRAS, another size without size, completed the equity financing led by IDG Capital. Ubras' executive teams are all women, and the founder Concon has many years of first -line underwear brand experience. Since its establishment in 2016, UBRAS has completed three rounds of financing. Investors are Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Today Capital, and Volume Queen Xu Xin.

There are also net red underwear brands. In November 2020, hundreds of millions of A round financing was completed in the banana, and the valuation after investment reached 2.5 billion yuan, becoming the most valuation underwear company in the past ten years. Banana is positioned as an induced label underwear, and in 2016, he received 10 million yuan of angel round investment of Zhong Ding Capital.

Two founders of the banana Zang Chongyu and Li Zechen, with their fifteen years of experience in the design industry, realized a common but few brand concerns: the tickling sewing labels on personal clothes. The two have improved new products after this, and the brand's sales in 2020 have reached 1 billion yuan.

In addition, a number of underwear brands such as Livarymio, which positioned high -end underwear, and the main scenes of Livarymio, and other underwear brands that specialize in sinking markets have received financing in the past three years. 100 million.

At present, the domestic underwear market has reached 100 billion. The "Research Report on the Chinese Women's Underwear Industry" released by Iri Consultation shows that the market size of the Chinese women's underwear industry in 2021 reached 127.5 billion yuan, and it is expected to reach 174.6 billion yuan in 2026.

The rise of a new Ruixin underwear brand attracted VC/PEs to rush, which also confirmed the gradual upgrade of "her economy". Women began to appreciate the "pleasing self" consumption from the pursuit of the opposite sex, which can be seen from the diversity of underwear. In this era, the model and consumer group of underwear began to gradually segmented, and a unicorn will run out.

- END -