Anta Sports closes $1.7bn deal to become Puma's largest shareholder

Anta Sports has completed its purchase of a 29.06% stake in Puma from Groupe Artémis, paying about 1.5 billion euros, or nearly $1.7 billion. The deal, agreed in January and finalised this week, makes the Chinese sports giant the German athletics brand's single largest shareholder.

Anta will now seek representation on Puma's supervisory board, the company said in a Wednesday statement. It has no plans to mount a takeover offer for Puma, signalling that the stake is a long-term investment rather than a step toward full control.

"Puma has a rich heritage and strong underlying brand value," Ding Shizhong, board chairman of Anta Sports, said in the announcement. He said the group has confidence in Puma's management and backs the strategic transformation now under way at the brand.

Ding framed the relationship as one of support rather than intervention. "As a long-term shareholder, we look forward to sharing our experience and capabilities, particularly in retail and operations, while respecting Puma's independence and brand identity," he said.

The seller, Groupe Artémis, is the investment company of the Pinault family, the clan behind luxury group Kering. Artémis bought its roughly 29% stake in Puma from Kering about eight years ago, and has now sold it on to Anta Sports.

Our guide to Kering's portfolio records that divestiture as part of the model: the group sells brands that no longer fit its luxury strategy, and Puma was among the first to go. The Artémis holding now passes out of the Pinault orbit entirely and into Chinese ownership.

What Anta brings to the table

Anta Sports is one of China's largest sportswear companies, and its portfolio reaches far beyond its namesake label. It owns Anta, Fila, Descente, Kolon Sport, Maia Active and Jack Wolfskin, a spread that stretches from mass-market apparel to outdoor and ski equipment.

The group is also the majority shareholder of Amer Sports, which holds Wilson, Arc'teryx and Salomon among its brands. That gives Anta a direct line into performance sports, outerwear and racket sports before it ever adds a stake in Puma's footwear and sportstyle business.

In the statement, Ding set out what Anta intends to contribute. "Our ambition is to support Puma in realizing its full potential and creating lasting value for consumers around the world," he said, pointing to the group's retail and operational experience as the core of the offer.

A turnaround with a new owner at the table

The deal lands in the middle of a reset at Puma. The company began a leadership shakeup in 2025 and carried out layoffs in October of last year, part of a broader effort to restore growth after a period in which the brand lost ground to rivals Adidas and Nike.

A new anchor shareholder changes the arithmetic of that turnaround. Anta has ruled out a takeover and says it will respect Puma's independence, but a 29.06% stake and a supervisory board seat give it a voice on strategy that smaller investors lack.

The price Anta paid puts a valuation on Puma at a moment when sportswear is navigating tariffs and flagging consumer sentiment. Roughly $1.7 billion for not quite 30% values the whole company well above 5 billion euros, a benchmark for how the market reads the brand's recovery prospects.

Anta's own footprint shows how the two businesses could fit. Puma's strength in footwear and worldwide sportstyle distribution complements Anta's grip on China's apparel market and its Amer Sports brands in outdoor and performance gear, without overlapping enough to force a merger.

The Pinault connection is worth noting in this context. Artémis held the Puma stake as a financial position within a luxury family's broader holdings, and its exit hands the brand to an operator with direct day-to-day experience running mass-market sportswear at scale.

Our sector coverage of luxury companies in sports tracks exactly this kind of crossover, where high-end groups and broad-market players meet. The Puma stake is one of the larger such intersections, and it moves the brand decisively from European family money to Chinese corporate ownership.

What Anta does next will depend on how quickly Puma's transformation shows results. A board seat gives the Chinese group visibility into that process, and its statement makes clear it intends to be patient, describing itself as a long-term shareholder rather than an activist.

The transaction also closes a chapter for the Pinault family's sportswear ambitions. The family's remaining focus is firmly in luxury, a shift our Kering guide documents across its holdings.

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Image: Puma