Jamie Salter will have even more resources to draw on as he continues to build his stable of brands.
On Thursday, General Atlantic, which invested nearly $2 billion into the brand marketing and entertainment firm in 2017, added another $500 million to its coffers.
The additional funds will allow Salter, founder and chief executive officer of Authentic, to expand the company’s reach both here and overseas.
Since General Atlantic’s 2017 investment, Authentic has executed close to 30 deals for companies that range from Brooks Brothers and Reebok to Sports Illustrated.
“General Atlantic’s increased investment in Authentic is a testament to the strength of our proprietary brand platform, business model and team,” said Salter. “General Atlantic takes an innovative investment approach and shares our vision for building brand value for the long term. We are proud to be part of General Atlantic’s selective portfolio of first-movers and established companies and look forward to continuing to partner with them to evolve and scale our model worldwide.”
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Salter founded Authentic in 2010 and in the past 13 years, the company has become one of the world’s leading brand platforms. In 2022 alone, it formed a strategic partnership with David Beckham to co-own and manage his global brand; completed its largest acquisition (Reebok), and finalized the acquisition of Ted Baker. In recent months, it acquired the intellectual property of Vince and Hunter, signed a definitive agreement to purchase activewear company Boardriders and is the stalking horse bidder for comfort shoe brand Rockport, a purchase expected to be finalized in mid-August.
The company has also been putting more emphasis on the entertainment part of its portfolio and recently created Authentic Studios, a production studio consisting of Shaquille O’Neal’s Jersey Legends, David Beckham’s Studio 99, Sports Illustrated Studios and Authentic Productions.
All told, Authentic boasts more than 40 brands and generates more than $25 billion in annual global retail sales with a presence in 150 countries. It also operates nearly 11,000 stores or shops-in-shop and its brands are carried at 380,000 points of sale.
Andrew Crawford, managing director and global head of consumer at General Atlantic, said, “General Atlantic is proud to be a long-term partner to Jamie and the Authentic Brands Group team. Over the past six years of our work together, Authentic has significantly accelerated its growth by capitalizing on meaningful M&A [mergers and acquisitions] opportunities, expanding into key markets and building a deeply experienced management team. Looking ahead, we believe Authentic is positioned for continued diversification across categories, license partners, geographies and distribution channels, with immense white space in digital and e-commerce particularly. We are thrilled to continue collaborating with Authentic to further scale its differentiated portfolio of brands.”
In addition to General Atlantic, other significant investors include BlackRock, CVC Capital Partners, Simon Property Group, HPS Investment Partners, Leonard Green & Partners and Brookfield.
In the summer of 2019, Blackrock invested $875 million into the company through its Long Term Private Capital division. In 2021, Authentic filed paperwork to go public but pulled back on those plans after CVC Capital and HPS Investment and the other shareholders purchased significant equity stakes. At that time, Salter said plans for an initial public offering would be delayed but could be revisited in 2023 or 2024.
This story was reported by WWD and originally appeared on WWD.com.
