HONG KONGâ€"Billabong International, the struggling Australian surfwear company, said on Thursday it had accepted a financial rescue package worth more than $500 million to be provided by the private equity groups Centerbridge Partners and Oaktree Capital.
The two buyout firms will eventually win a controlling 34 percent stake in Billabong as a result of their financing proposal, which involves a combined 571 million Australian dollars, or $542 million, in debt and equity financing.
Thursday’s announcement means that Centerbridge and Oaktree have trumped an earlier, rival approach for Billabong that had been made by Altamont Capital Partners, a private equity investor, and GSO Capital Partners, the credit arm of the Blackstone Group.
‘‘In fully evaluating the competing refinancing proposals, on a range of factors, the board determined that the Centerbridge-Oaktree consortium proposal was in the best interests of the company,’’ Ian Pollard, Billabong’s chairman, said in a statement. ‘‘As Billabong continues to restructure its operations globally, the need for immediate long-term funding certainty and a strong financial base from which to reinvigorate an iconic group of brands is best met by entering into this agreement now.’’
Billabong also said Thursday that it had appointed Neil Fiske, a former head of the retailers Eddie Bauer and Bath & Body Works, as its new chief executive. The company had been without a chief executive since Aug. 2, when Launa Inman stepped down after about a year in the job. Ms. Inman was to have been replaced by Scott Olivet, a former chief executive of the sunglasses maker Oakley, as part of the Altamont deal â€" but Mr. Olivet had never formally stepped into the role.
Whether Centerbridge and Oaktree will succeed with their turnaround project remains to be seen.
This month, Billabong was removed from the S&P/ASX 200, Australia’s benchmark share index. Last month, in reporting a record net loss of 859.5 million dollars for the financial year that ended in June, Billabong wrote down the value of its namesake clothing brand to zero.
Shares in Billabong were up around 6 percent in afternoon trading in Sydney on Thursday following the announcement of the Centerbridge-Oaktree deal. They have fallen around 42 percent so far this year.
