A consortium of U.S. private equity firm Entrada Partners and Dave Checketts has been selected as the preferred bidder for TaylorMade, one of the world's three major golf brands. Checketts is an investor who is a former professional sports team executive.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 24th, JP Morgan and Jefferies, the sell-side advisers for the TaylorMade deal, recently selected the Entrada-Checketts consortium as the preferred bidder. The consortium is said to have completed funding for the acquisition and plans to sign a stock purchase agreement (SPA) around mid-Aug. The parties are reportedly negotiating with the seller, Centroid Investment Partners, to set the sale price in the 4 trillion won range.
Entrada's project fund is expected to cover about 50%–70% of the acquisition price, with the remainder to be funded by a blind fund managed by the Checketts side. Last year, Checketts jointly created the operating platform "Cynosure Checketts Sports Capital" with the Cynosure Group and raised a blind fund. Checketts serves as co-founder and managing director, and the Cynosure Group is responsible for fund management and administration.
The key is whether F&F exercises its right of first refusal. F&F, a strategic investor (SI) in TaylorMade, holds a right of first refusal that gives it the right to acquire control first on the same terms within 14 days after a third-party acquisition proposal. However, the industry says some members of TaylorMade's headquarters management have expressed a negative view of F&F exercising the right of first refusal. Even if F&F acquires the company, if management maintains an uncooperative stance, friction will be inevitable, making relations with them a potential variable going forward.
Earlier, Centroid acquired TaylorMade for 2.1 trillion won in 2021. As a key SI, F&F invested 200 billion won in mid-tier mezzanine and 300 billion won in junior equity. Excluding liability, it covered 500 billion won, half of the roughly 1 trillion won acquisition price.