Adviser to Primosole Holdings on the investment in Samurai Apparel Limited

Deal Overview

Wilson Partners Corporate Finance was delighted to advise Primosole Holdings with financial and tax due diligence and deal support for its investment in Samurai Apparel Limited (“Samurai”), the Norfolk-based international sportswear company.

Alongside Samurai’s founder Terry Sands and its family, Primosole intends to focus, strengthen and grow the existing unique bespoke teamwear platform while in parallel develop a direct-to-consumer e-commerce based athleisurewear brand, starting with rugby.

The new management team will be formed of the newly appointed CEO Stefano Schivo, Terry Sands in the new role of Director of Commercial Relationships and Keeley Theobald as Head of Operations and Production. The Samurai team is also being reinforced with a number of key senior hires in strategic areas of the business in addition to the opening of a new London office in Shoreditch.

Speaking about the transaction, Stefano Schivo, said: “We are excited to partner with Samurai as we believe it represents a unique platform with significant untapped value – by merging different expertise, Samurai has the potential to grow and further establish itself as a strong reference brand, particularly in the rugby community”.

About the Parties

Samurai is a well-established 25-years old fast-rising brand in the sports and teamwear industry with customers in 24 countries around the world, in a diverse range of sports beyond rugby.

Samurai have built a strong reputation for supplying very high quality, high specification bespoke sports clothing and equipment. Owning its own production facility enables Samurai to deliver world-class levels of service and quality excellence whilst staying true to their core values.

Among Samurai’s current customers are Premiership Rugby clubs Exeter Chiefs and Leicester Tigers, the Army Rugby Union, Hong Kong Rugby Football Club, Cornish Pirates and Derbyshire County Cricket clubs. Samurai Sportswear has thousands of customers in schools, universities & colleges, corporations and amateur sports clubs in hockey, netball and athletics worldwide.

Primosole is a diversified investment holding company which partners with large family offices to acquire majority ownership and operational control in small-medium enterprises with a platform for growth in the Technology, Consumer Goods, Energy and Real Assets Space.

Dan James, Director at Wilson Partners said: “Samurai is an iconic rugby brand, born through passion and opportunity, and with a number of marquee elite sports contracts supported by a strong presence in the grass roots community. With this new investment and the support of Primosole the future looks very bright for Samurai.”