The golf business is pretty far down the long list of victims of the 2008 financial crisis. But the overbuilding of courses and surrounding housing developments during the credit bubble that preceded the crash resulted in a long hangover. Amid the ongoing symptoms, the Oct. 28 IPO of Titleist and Footjoy parent Acushnet could be something of a bright spot.
“The industry overbuilt from about 1985 up through subprime,” Acushnet CEO Wally Uihlein told Forbes in an interview Friday. “The last five years have been this correction period, and we see it as a necessary correction.”
Uihlein was speaking from the New York Stock Exchange, where the company, which makes golf balls, clubs, apparel and footwear under a handful of popular brand names, had just rung the bell to open Friday’s trading session.
Acushnet priced shares at $17 per share, well below the $21-24 range it proposed in its filing documents, but the ultimate size of the deal — $328.7 million – had little impact on the company’s prospects considering all the proceeds went to selling shareholders, including Fila Korea. (See “Acushnet Owners Go For The Green.”)
Since the company itself didn’t raise any funds in the deal, I asked Uihlein and COO David Maher why they think investors should think about getting in the cart with them at a time when the golf business appears to be in turmoil following Nike NKE -3.40%’s move to get out of the equipment game, Adidas efforts to sell TaylorMade and the bankruptcy of retailer Golfsmith.
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