(Reuters) -Shares in Puma SE surged after Bloomberg reported on Monday that the holding company of France’s Pinault family is weighing options for its 29% stake in the German sportswear maker including sounding out potential buyers.
The Pinault’s holding company, Artemis, which controls Gucci-owner Kering and other businesses in the luxury, arts and entertainment industries, has become the subject of increased scrutiny from investors over high debt accumulated across its portfolio as it sought to diversify investments.
A spokesperson for Artemis, Puma’s biggest shareholder, declined to comment. Puma did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Puma’s shares, which have lost over 60% of their value over the past two years, were up 18% at 1353 GMT.
Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, reported the Pinaults were working with advisors to assess options for the asset and had reached out to potential buyers.
The stake is worth roughly 800 million euros ($936.56 million), based on Puma’s market capitalisation provided by LSEG which does not include Monday’s price surge.
Artemis had issued an exchangeable bond worth 500 million euros that was due earlier this year in a bid to downsize its holding. But it needed to pay investors back in cash rather than company shares due to Puma’s poor share price performance.
Artemis said last month it was not facing any liquidity problems due to a drop in dividends from Kering and other assets, including Puma.
Artemis acquired its stake in Puma following a reshuffle of Kering’s portfolio in 2018 when Kering, which until then also controlled Puma, was transformed into a pure luxury player.
($1 = 0.8542 euros)
(Reporting by Preetika Parashuraman in Bengaluru; Tassilo Hummel in Paris and Christina Amann in Berlin, Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Tomasz Janowski and Susan Fenton)
