Castore has appointed JPMorgan to test buyer interest after a run of inbound approaches, three years after an external equity round valued the Manchester-based sportswear brand at about £950m. No formal process has started, and any deal could take the form of a majority sale, a minority stake or a partnership.
Castore was founded in Liverpool in 2016 by brothers Tom and Phil Beahon, both of whom saw professional sporting careers end early. The company is now headquartered in Manchester and supplies kit to the England cricket and rugby union teams, the Oracle Red Bull Racing Formula One team, Everton and Rangers. Sir Andy Murray is among its backers.
Sky News reported at the weekend that the board had decided to examine strategic options following a surge of unsolicited interest, and that JPMorgan had been engaged to canvass potential buyers. The identities of the suitors have not been disclosed, though industry sources indicated they include sportswear peers in China and elsewhere.
The cap-table backdrop matters here. Castore's last priced equity event was a £150m round in 2023 led by The Raine Group, the technology, media and telecoms merchant bank, alongside Hanaco Ventures and Felix Capital. That round set a valuation of roughly £950m and remains the reference point for any bid.
The register has since widened through M&A rather than through a fresh venture round. Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos Group joined as an investor after Castore acquired the heritage brand Belstaff last year, and in June 2026 the company bought British footwear maker Grenson Shoes. In May it secured £90m of new debt from a lender group including BNP Paribas, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group, financing growth without further dilution.
The Beahon brothers retain a sizeable holding and, according to one person familiar with the situation, would stay at the helm under new ownership. That structure points towards a partial sale or a strategic partner rather than a clean exit, and it is the variable that will determine how much of the founders' stake is actually converted into cash.
A takeover price has not been indicated. On the trajectory implied by the Belstaff and Grenson deals and the 2023 mark, a transaction would be expected to clear the £950m level, though nothing has been agreed and one source cautioned that no deal may materialise at all.
For the North West, an exit at or above that figure would rank among the region's largest consumer outcomes of the cycle. It would also crystallise returns for Raine, Hanaco and Felix Capital roughly three years into their position — a shorter hold than the current European exit environment has typically allowed.
Castore has not commented on the speculation.
Original source: Sky News (via Yahoo Finance) — https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/england-cricket-kit-supplier-castore-062200946.html
