Pedestrians walk past a Bosideng store in Shanghai in 2021. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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Shares in China’s biggest home-grown down jacket maker Bosideng International plunged by more than 15% at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday after the company said billionaire chairman Gao Dekang would lower his holdings in the business.
Gao agreed to sell 400 million shares at a price of HK$4.31 in a block trade with J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific), the announcement said. The disposal, which would raise HK$1.7 billion, or about $221 million, represents 3.6% of Bosideng’s total issued shares and is equivalent to approximately 5% of shares held by Gao and his family. Gao, age 72, has a fortune worth $4.8 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today; his wife Mei Dong, 56, and son Gao Xiaodong, 48, are executive directors of the company.
Gao is selling the shares to “optimize the shareholder structure of the company, release market liquidity for the company’s shares and attract more high-quality domestic and foreign investors,” Bosideng’s statement said. The proceeds will also be used “for capital needs and development of charity work.” The sale is expected to be completed on July 5, the company said.
The announcement came after Bosideng last Wednesday reported profit and sales increases for the year ending March 31. Sales rose by 38% to 23.2 billion yuan, or $3.2 billion, helping to lift profit by 43% to approximately 3.1 billion yuan, the company said.
After reaching a near two-year high of HK$4.87 on June 28 on the upbeat earnings news, Bosideng’s stock closed at HK$4.01 in Hong Kong yesterday. In the past 12 months, Bosideng’s shares have gained 16%; during the same time, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s benchmark Hang Seng Index has declined by 7.4% on mainland China and Hong Kong growth worries, and shares in Toronto-headquartered Bosideng rival Canada Goose have lost 29.5% at the New York Stock Exchange.
China apparel billionaire Gao Dekang in 2014. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/WireImage)
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Rising domestic demand helped to fuel gains in Bosideng’s business in its last financial year, the company said last Wednesday. “Since the beginning of 2024, China’s economic rebound has maintained its momentum on the back of steady growth,” it said. “The country’s economic restructuring also progressed steadily. The domestic market has also been revitalized. All this has laid a solid foundation of enterprises’ sustainable, high-quality development and boosted confidence.”
Sales gains were led by its own Bosideng brand, which benefitted from consumer preference for local names, the company said. For the year ending March 31, the Bosideng branded down apparel business rose by 42.7% to 16.8 billion yuan. “China’s growing cultural confidence has injected impetus to the development of domestic brands,” according to Bosideng.
Online sales for all of the company’s brands rose by 40.6% from a year earlier to 6.9 billion yuan. Looking ahead, the company “has set its sights on grasping the opportunities arising from technological innovation, accelerating digital transformation, and the promotion of green development.”
Gao set up his first apparel business with a team of 11 villagers in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province when Chairman Mao was still alive, back in 1975, after learning how to sew from his father.
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