French football star Kylian Mbappe has taken a shareholding in German TV brand Loewe whose TV, audio and appliances are currently being rolled out at Harvey Norman.
Distributed in Australia by Indi Imports the investment Loewe initially rolled Mbappe as a brand ambassador after developing a portable speaker for the footballer who is being paid.
Mbappe is paid A$24.5m a season to play for Real Madrid, he was also paid $245M as a signing on bonus which will be paid over the five years of his contract.
It’s now expected that Loewe will be floated with Mbappe spearheading publicity for the German brand after he took a minority holding of more than 10% through his investment firm Coalition Capital.
The amount invested is not known.
The move comes after Loewe — best known for its premium TV’s that are currently sold at The Good Guys moves to expand their operation in Europe and Asia Pacific with Harvey Norman set to launch a premium Loewe coffee machine shortly.
Aslan Khabliev the CEO of Loewe and the man who rescued the Company after it was placed into administration claims that Loew is planning to sharply increase annual revenue to around A$490 million over the next couple of years from the current $100 million level, with a particular focus on the North American and Asian markets.
Observers are tipping that this could lead to an IPO.
“Loewe’s valuation ideally grows to about €500 million over the next roughly five years,” Khabliev said, adding that he sees tennis star Roger Federer’s partnership with sports brand On as a blueprint for Loewe’s tie-up with Mbappe.
According to Bloomberg Mbappe purchased a stake in French second-division football club Stade Malherbe Caen from Oaktree Capital Management.
For Loewe, the football star’s massive online audience, including 122 million followers on Instagram, may prove particularly valuable.
“Kylian helped tremendously with a Bluetooth speaker we have developed with him,” Khabliev said.
Several of Mbappe’s teammates in the French national football team have also endorsed the product on social media, he added.
Currently Loewe products are sold at specialist dealers, The Good Guys and Harvey Norman in Australia where Kylian Mbappe is not known as much as he is in Europe.
