Snow Peak [TYO:7816], a Niigata, Japan-based camping gear maker, is in advanced talks about a potential privatization, sources familiar with the situation said.

The JPY 31.9bn (USD 210m) market cap company has been in talks with a global private equity firm for a potential management buyout (MBO), they noted. The deal may be announced soon, the first source added.

Chairman and President Tohru Yamai and the founding Yamai family could remain shareholders, according to the sources. The company is hoping that by teaming up with a private equity sponsor it can achieve growth in overseas markets with its Snow Peak brand, they added.

Global private equity firms have been eyeing Snow Peak for years, because of its high-quality products, and durability, and the brand has solid fans, the sources said.

Bain Capital is among the firms that have been interested, three sources added.

Snow Peak grew strongly during the camping boom that occurred because of self-curfews under COVID-19, the second source said. However, the camping boom has ended and the company is struggling to achieve further growth, the second source added.

For the fiscal year that ended in December 2023, Snow Peak posted an operating profit of JPY 943m, down 74.3% from the previous year, on group revenues of JPY25.7bn, down 16.4% YoY, according to its financial statement. The statement attributed the fall in sales to diversification of leisure activities following the end of the Covid pandemic.

The closing stock price on 16 February is JPY 838, up 5.94% from the previous day and down 7.71% from the beginning of this year.

Its major shareholders include Tohru Yamai with a 14.2% stake, Ryusuke Yamai, 2.5%, and former president Lisa Yamai, 2%, as of the end of December 2022, according to its 2023 securities report.

The company was founded in 1958 by Yukio Yamai in Tsubame Sanjo city of Niigata Prefecture, originally as an ironmongery wholesale shop. It then started marketing mountaineering gears in April 1959, according to the report. It had 697 employees excluding temporary workers as of the end of 2022, according to its website.

Bain declined to comment. Snow Peak declined to comment. No contact details for President Yamai and the Yamai family were available in the public domain.

[Editor’s Note: The article has been updated post-publication to note that Snow Peak declined to comment.]