Back In December, 2021, we heard talk that Dainese might go up for sale in 2022. The talk appeared substantive, since it was no less a respected news entity than Reuters which first reported it. Still, the sources it quoted were anonymous, and there was no official word about what was going on. Business deals are, after all, not typically spectator sports.
On March 11, 2022, global investment firm Carlyle Group purchased the Dainese Group from its former owner, Bahrain-based investment firm Investcorp. While Carlyle didn’t go into great detail about its future plans, so far we know that they involve expanding Dainese’s China and United States distribution. Current Dainese CEO Cristiano Silei will remain in his current position. Additionally, this deal still needs to pass all the necessary regulatory approvals prior to completion.
Investcorp officially acquired Dainese from its founder, Lino Dainese, on January 1, 2015. It was a deal which saw the firm pay 130 million Euros. According to Reuters, the firm’s 2022 sale of the Dainese Group to the Carlyle Group is valued at 630 million Euros (or about $692 million), including debt.
“We were attracted by Dainese’s strong brand, its long history and record of innovation,” Carlyle Europe Partners managing director of consumer and retail Massimiliano Caraffa said in a statement.
“Leveraging our global network and expertise in scaling consumer brands, we are excited to support Dainese in the next chapter of its growth journey, building upon its distinctive customer-centric ‘head-to-toe’ product offering and unmatched technical excellence,” Caraffa added.
Dainese currently has over 1,000 employees, presences in 96 countries around the world, and owns and operates 38 retail stores, as well as its own e-commerce website. As you may recall, in separate deals over the term of Investcorp’s ownership of the brand, Dainese itself acquired helmet maker AGV in 2007, as well as boot specialist TCX in 2020.
As always, it’s unclear what the future holds. In addition to motorcycle gear, Dainese currently also makes specialty gear for other activities, including bicycling, winter sports, and horseback riding. Since the type of riding we talk about at RideApart involves iron horses and not flesh-and-blood horses, we can’t speak to any of that. Nevertheless, we’d imagine that as long as customers across these various Dainese gear specialties can continue to expect the same level of quality from its products going forward, most will probably be happy.
