Fresh off the Nova Scotia golf trip, I couldn't resist a golf-inspired case study. This one's particularly relevant—it shows how timing and operational discipline can turn a distressed asset into a 9x return.
PE Playbook: TaylorMade
State of Play
Today, TaylorMade sits near the top of the golf world with a star-studded roster of tour sponsorships—Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, and more. But the path here wasn’t straight.
In 2017, Adidas gave up on golf and sold the money-losing TaylorMade to KPS Capital for $425 million. Four years later, KPS sold it to South Korea’s Centroid Investment Partners for ~$1.7 billion, reportedly a 9x equity return. Now, Centroid is prepping an exit at a rumored $3.5 billion valuation.
Let’s unpack this fascinating private equity turnaround story.
Company History
