US company Crocs (based in Broomfield, Colorado) decided to acquire Italian casual footwear brand Heydude for 2.5 billion dollars. The purchase will be fund with 2.05 billion dollars in cash and 450 million dollars in Crocs shares issued to Alessandro Rosano, founder and CEO of the Italian brand.
“We founded Heydude in Italy in 2008, to develop comfortable, versatile and accessible footwear. We are proud of the brand we built and are honoured to become a part of Crocs, a company perfectly positioned to take HEYDUDE to the next level. We have long admired the Crocs business and are excited to have them bring HEYDUDE’s comfort, craftsmanship, and style to consumers globally”, said Alessandro Rosano. Heydude’s founder and CEO will continue to lead, as creative director and strategic advisor, innovative product development.
The deal is expected to have a direct and immediate effect not only on the Broomfield-based company’s revenue growth, but also on its operating margin and earnings in 2022. The US company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer Anne Mehlman said: “Heydude has experienced incredible growth in revenue and profits over the past few years. Heydude is expected to be immediately accretive to our high revenue growth, industry-leading operating margins and earnings. We expect the combined business to generate significant free cash flow, enabling us to quickly deleverage while investing to support future growth. We are excited about the combination and are confident in our ability to deliver long-term shareholder value”.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, after which the Heydude brand will operate as an independent division.
“With the acquisition of HEYDUDE, we are thrilled to add another high-growth, highly profitable brand to our portfolio”, said Andrew Rees, Chief Executive Officer of Crocs. “We believe Heydude’s casual, comfortable and lightweight products are aligned to long-term consumer trends and are a perfect fit for Crocs. We intend to leverage our global presence, best-in-class marketing and scale infrastructure to build upon HEYDUDE’s strong foundation and create significant shareholder value. We truly admire the business that founder Alessandro Rosano has built and are honoured to welcome the HEYDUDE team to Crocs”.
