Amer Sports confirms talks with China's Anta

Amer Sports, the Finnish owner of Salomon, announced on Thursday that it has entered into new discussions with a consortium led by Chinese rival Anta Sports. The group, which is also the owner of Arc'teryx, Atomic and Mavic (whose status in the company's portfolio is currently under review), as well as recently acquired Peak Performance, first announced that it had been approached by Anta Sports and Asian capital investment fund FountainVest Partners concerning an offer to buy the company for 4.6 billion euros (5.3 billion dollars) on 11th September.

The most recent discussions are "intended to ascertain whether there is a basis to commence a more formal process to facilitate a possible recommended transaction", stated Amer Sports in a press release. 

According to sources cited by Bloomberg, the consortium has held meetings with shareholders over the last few weeks but no definitive decisions have been made. 

Amer Sports has also confirmed to Bloomberg that the consortium is currently in discussions with banks as it looks to fund the transaction. 

Amer Sports shares were up 1.33% at 13.00 GMT on the Helsinki stock market, where the market index fell 1.6%.