Birkenstock Looks Everywhere for $130 leather sandals Helped the German family behind the brand build one of the largest shoe fortunes in the world.
As Birkenstock debuts in New York on Wednesday, brothers Alex and Christian Birkenstock are now worth $3.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, even as the company’s shares It fell 13% in 2018. Worst start Listed in New York in just over two years with a valuation of $1 billion or more.
The German shoemaker’s heir is betting on a huge payoff to hand over majority control of the historic shoemaker to private equity firm L Catterton in 2021. Christian achieved a return of over 100% on the minority stake he retained. Alex is no longer listed as a shareholder.
They raised a total of more than 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) from 2021 deals, putting the shoe maker on the path to public markets. The brothers received dividends of about 100 million euros a year in the two years before the deal, documents show.
Representatives for Birkenstock and L Catterton did not respond to requests for comment.
family tradition
The Birkenstock dynasty is about to begin 250 years ago Johannes Adam and Johann Adam were shoemakers in Langen-Bergheim, a small town about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Frankfurt. village. In 1963, Karl Birkenstock introduced the first model of the company’s famous sandal, and Johannes’ descendants have continued the family tradition, transforming their shoes into recognizable modern forms.
Alex and Christian both became involved in the family business in the 1980s, when they were teenagers. Their older brother Stephan joined in the 1990s. The trio continued the company’s global expansion, helping to build orthopedic footwear into one of the most recognizable footwear brands on the planet today, with boots and clogs worn by supermodels and grandparents alike.
The brothers exited the company during a transition period that began in 2009, with Stephen exiting the company as a shareholder for an undisclosed amount.
The Birkenstock brothers aren’t the only European fashion billionaires expected to make millions from the flotation of their sandal company. L Catterton is part-owned by luxury goods group LVMH and its founder Bernard Arnault, the world’s second-richest man with a fortune of $170 billion. Arnault’s son Alexandre will join Birkenstock’s board of directors.
L Catterton’s acquisition of Birkenstock resulted from secret meetings at high-end hotels, video calls and visits to the shoemaker’s production base on the German-Polish border. L Catterton co-CEO J. Michael Chu purchased a pair of Birkenstocks before his first meeting with shoe factory executive Oliver Reichert. He was not wearing them during this encounter.
Reichert also helps oversee Christian’s investments outside of footwear companies, including German nutrition company Bucci and Bukaraoffering luxury travel experiences across parts of Europe and South Africa.
Alex moved his wealth into high-end property, buying a six-bedroom home Manhattan penthouse In 2011, the rent is now $25,000 per month. The next year, he also sold a three-story penthouse in Miami Beach’s South Beach section for $25 million, more than double what the billionaire scion had originally paid for it several years earlier.
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