The best wetsuits in the game and what personalities in their surf team! Mr Fanning and Mr Ho!

Just in: Rip Curl Readies to Sell!

Three hundred mill? More?

Five years ago, almost to the day, Rip Curl’s three major shareholders figured they’d sell, but only if they could get close to half a billion dollars.

It was an ambitious, and not entirely unrealistic, amount arrived at by the founders Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer (who jointly own seventy two percent) and founder of Rip Curl in Europe, Francois Payot (eighteen percent).

It didn’t come off. A sale price of ten times earnings multiple ain’t an easy play to make. But worth a try. There’s a lot of dumb money out there.

Two years ago, Rip Curl was valued at $310 million after the board approved a share buyback from former senior ­executives no longer with the company.

News in today, suggests Doug, Brian and Francois are spit-polishing the biz for another swing at selling the house. Doug and Brian have appointed the Australian company Gresham and the US investment firm RW Baird and Co to manage the sale process.

According to the Australian Financial Review,

Private equity buyers are likely to be in the mix in the latest sale process for Rip Curl, particularly those who missed out on Billabong three years ago, including Altamont Capital Partners, which teamed up to bid with clothing giant VF Corporation, and Sycamore Partners, which backed former Billabong boss Paul Naude’s unsuccessful offer.

Ain’t it crazy? Who would’ve thought an American investment bank might one day own Billabong, Quiksilver and Rip  Curl and then merge the sons-a-bitches.
Twenty years ago, Billabong and Quiksilver were the kings of surf. Both of ’em went public, loaded up on debt, and crashed hard.
“It’s the end of an era. Look at Torquay. Two billion dollars worth of wealth and none of it put back. None of the owners’ kids work for the companies.” Maurice Cole 
Rip Curl survived because it stayed private, because it wasn’t beholden to the strictures of a public company, of reporting the bad news, of the constant grind to satisfy shareholders and keep the stock price moving upwards.
Of course, there’s the issue of Doug and Brian hitting their seventies. Almost sixty years of surfing apiece. Sometimes it ain’t a bad thing for an old man to step back and enjoy the fruit from his orchard.
In a beautiful world, it’d mean entrusting the company to a son or daughter groomed in the family biz. But that ain’t happening here.
As for the noted Victorian shaper Maurice Cole told me the other night.
“It’s the end of an era. Look at Torquay. Two billion dollars worth of wealth and none of it put back. None of the owners’ kids work for the companies.You look at Patagonia, (founder Yvon Chouinard’s son) Fletcher’s in there, Yvon’s wife is in there. It’s a family business. You can’t find anybody in surfing able to get their kids involved in the companies, and you got gotta ask why.”
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Eddie Haiku
Eddie Haiku
9 years ago

Great opportunity for the second tier core surf companies to rise up, slit the throats of the investment bankers and provide us with a decent product at a fair price.

Dumb Florida Redneck
Dumb Florida Redneck
9 years ago

Godamn how much is Mason’s weed budget?

Doobalachy
Doobalachy
9 years ago

So what happened to all the Aussie kids did they become hipsters and deemed their parents business not cool?

Sonny Joyce
Sonny Joyce
9 years ago

Go now you are sent forth.,…

channelbottom
channelbottom
9 years ago
Reply to  Sonny Joyce

Hey dude, watcha doin? Vodka and coconut water?
Have fun.

Dogsnuts
Dogsnuts
9 years ago
Sonny Joyce
Sonny Joyce
9 years ago
Reply to  Dogsnuts

Who run baarta town?

channelbottom
channelbottom
9 years ago

I can offer 5$ and a hand-job behind the bike sheds. No kissing.
How many shares will I get?

Sonny Joyce
Sonny Joyce
9 years ago
Reply to  channelbottom

Dave. Intentions Pure , path Secure.

Otto
Otto
9 years ago
Reply to  channelbottom

I just shared this with everyone on tinder. That channel of yours may become a gulf.

channelbottom
channelbottom
9 years ago
Reply to  Otto

Not sure what the wife will say, but thanks for the support there Bob.

KO'OLAU HOME INSPECTION LLC HO
KO'OLAU HOME INSPECTION LLC HO
9 years ago

Silver spoon kiddies just want to surf and be cool.

Steve Savage
Steve Savage
9 years ago

Good luck to Brian and Claw, they kicked all this shit off back in the 60s, and they deserve a pot of gold a the end of the tunnel. Always stayed really true to surfing…just check the team roster over the years…goddam…

Dumb Florida Redneck
Dumb Florida Redneck
9 years ago
Reply to  Steve Savage

The North Koreans love them!

20 mule team
20 mule team
9 years ago

Some kids are just lazy. That’s why.

Sonny Joyce
Sonny Joyce
9 years ago
Reply to  20 mule team

Who knows where the road will lead us yet..


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