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Bloomberg
Billionaire hedge fund manager and activist investor Bill Ackman is buying a minority stake in Bremont as the UK luxury watchmaker looks to expand in the fast-growing US market.
Ackman is teaming with Bremont’s controlling shareholder, Hellcat LP, to invest a combined $60 million in Bremont, the watchmaker said in an emailed statement.
The investment shows confidence in Bremont and its expansion plans aimed at the fast-growing US market, which overtook China in 2021 as the top destination for Swiss watch exports.
Founded by brothers Nick and Giles English in 2002, Bremont produces aviation- and military-inspired luxury timepieces. It is now the largest luxury watch manufacturer in the UK, with sales rising 28% in its most recent fiscal year.
The transaction values Bremont at more than £100 million, according to the Financial Times, which reported the deal earlier.
Ackman will have a substantial minority stake in the company following the deal, Bremont said, without specifying how much. Hellcat, a vehicle for a group of long-term Bremont investors, will increase its majority ownership.
Ackman is buying the stake in Bremont with personal funds outside of the hedge fund that he runs, Pershing Square Capital Management.
A watchmaker at the Bremont Watch Company builds a Bremont Wright Flyer at the company’s headquarters in Henley-on-Thames, London.
Bremont opened a 35,000 square-foot (3,252 square-meter) manufacturing facility in Henley, England, 18 months ago. The company says the production site makes it the first business in over 50 years to manufacture mechanical watch movements at a large scale in the UK.
Sales of luxury watches boomed during the pandemic as cash-flush consumers stuck at home re-discovered mechanical timepieces. Watch exports from Switzerland, the center of the luxury watch industry, surged to record levels by value in 2022 to more than 23 billion Swiss francs ($25 billion).
“I have long admired Bremont’s handsomely-designed, technologically-sophisticated and rugged watches, and the brand’s storied aviation and military history,†Ackman said in a statement.