HONG KONG-It was a literal wipe out, but not the kind you experience on the waves.
On Tuesday, the Australian surf wear company Billabong International reported its worst financial results ever â€" a net loss of 859.5 million Australian dollars, or about $772 million, for the fiscal year that ended in June.
Most of that was due to accounting charges, but one of the heftiest of those spoke to the strong undertow that has been pulling the company down for more than a year now, making it the target of progressively lower takeover offers: On Tuesday, Billabong announced it had written down the value of its namesake brand to zero, compared with a carrying value of 252.1 million dollars a year earlier.
Billabong is dealing with weak demand for its products even as it tries to engineer a corporate turnaround and entertains much needed financing offers from private equity groups.
Last week, Billabong said it was that it was considering a proposal from the private equity groups Centerbridge Partners, based in New York, and Oaktree Capital, headquartered in Los Angeles, that would amount to 492.5 million dollars in new debt and equity financing.
The Centerbridge-led proposal is seeking to trump a refinancing deal that Billabong had agreed to last month involving Altamont Capital Partners, a private equity investor; GSO Capital Partners, the credit arm of the Blackstone Group; and GE Capital. The Altamont-led financing package would be worth 520 million dollars.
As part of the Altamont deal, Billabong announced last month that Scott Olivet, a former chief executive of the sunglasses maker Oakley, would succeed its chief executive, Launa Inman, who had been in the job for about a year. Ms. Inman stepped down on Aug. 2, but Billabong has delayed the appointment of Mr. Olivet â€" which would be unlikely to proceed if it chooses the Centerbridge deal instead.
Billabong’s board continues to weigh the two offers, and has said it wants to make a decision as soon as possible.
‘‘We are nearing the end of a long process that has caused distraction, impacted on staff morale and has been very costly,’’ Ian Pollard, Billabong’s chairman, said Tuesday in a statement. ‘‘The company looks forward to refocusing, reinvigorating its brands and rebuilding the business on a solid, long term financial footing.’’
Founded in 1973 by Gordon Merchant, a surfer who started out making board shorts in the kitchen of his home on Australia’s Gold Coast, Billabong has seen sales decline in recent years as it struggled to bolster its balance sheet and has fended off a number of takeover offers.
Early in 2012, Mr. Merchant snubbed a takeover bid by TPG Capital that valued Billabong at 851.4 million dollars, or about 3.30 dollars a share, saying then that even an offer of 4 dollars a share ‘‘would still represent a discount on the true value of Billabong.’’
The shares traded midday on Tuesday in Sydney at 51 Australian cents apiece, down 9.7 percent from their previous closing price.
