Billionaire hedge fund manager and activist investor Bill Ackman is buying a minority stake in Bremont as the UK luxury watchmaker looks to expand in the fast-growing US market.
(Bloomberg) — Billionaire hedge fund manager and activist investor Bill Ackman is buying a minority stake in Bremont as the UK luxury watchmaker looks to expand in the fast-growing US market.
Ackman is teaming with Bremont’s controlling shareholder, Hellcat LP, to invest a combined £48.4 million ($60 million) in Bremont, the watchmaker said in an emailed statement.
The investment shows confidence in Bremont and its expansion plans aimed at the fast-growing US market, which overtook China in 2021 as the top destination for Swiss watch exports.
Founded by brothers Nick and Giles English in 2002, Bremont produces aviation- and military-inspired luxury timepieces. It is now the largest luxury watch manufacturer in the UK, with sales rising 28% in its most recent fiscal year.
The transaction values Bremont at more than £100 million, according to the Financial Times, which reported the deal earlier.
Ackman will have a substantial minority stake in the company following the deal, Bremont said, without specifying how much. Hellcat, a vehicle for a group of long-term Bremont investors, will increase its majority ownership.
Ackman is buying the stake in Bremont with personal funds outside of the hedge fund that he runs, Pershing Square Capital Management.
Bremont opened a 35,000 square-foot (3,252 square-meter) manufacturing facility in Henley, England, 18 months ago. The company says the production site makes it the first business in over 50 years to manufacture mechanical watch movements at a large scale in the UK.
Sales of luxury watches boomed during the pandemic as cash-flush consumers stuck at home re-discovered mechanical timepieces. Watch exports from Switzerland, the center of the luxury watch industry, surged to record levels by value in 2022 to more than 23 billion Swiss francs ($25 billion).
“I have long admired Bremont’s handsomely-designed, technologically-sophisticated and rugged watches, and the brand’s storied aviation and military history,” Ackman said in a statement.
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