Rob Fyfe, left, and Jeremy ​Moon will continue to work for Icebreaker following the sale.

The sale of merino wool clothing company Icebreaker has pocketed its former owners $288 million.

In November, United States retail firm VF Corporation, owner of The North Face, Vans and Wrangler brands, announced it was buying Icebreaker for an undisclosed sum.

On Monday, the Overseas Investment Office publicly released its decision, which granted consent for the deal to go ahead. It also disclosed the sale price of $288m.

The decision says the office was satisfied the individuals who will control the investment have the "relevant experience and acumen and are of good character".

READ MORE: Benefit of Icebreaker sale to US giant lead to cheaper prices

VF also showed it had financial commitment to the investment, it said.

In November, Icebreaker chairman Rob Fyfe said the company considered more than 24 serious offers to buy it before doing a deal with VF, which is based in North Carolina.

JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF Icebreaker has 30 stores and nine outlets across New Zealand, Australia, Europe, US and Canada.

Fyfe said VF was the chosen because it could lift the brand's worth to $1 billion by entering new markets that Icebreaker had not yet been successful in, such as the United States, Asia and Eastern Europe.

VF was committed to keeping Icebreaker's headquarters in New Zealand and the sale would not affect its 340 full-time staff, 30 per cent of which were based in here, he said.

Fyfe said the sale was not a loss, but a global opportunity gained for a New Zealand company.

Icebreaker was founded by Jeremy Moon in 1995 when he was 24 years old.

​Moon and Fyfe will continue to work for the company.

Exit Strategist director Ross Peden​​ said New Zealand brands selling to multinationals was "a little sad" but Icebreaker's "amazing story" could encourage other business owners to think about their exit strategy early.

The company has 30 stores and nine outlets across New Zealand, Australia, Europe, US and Canada.</s>T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) and Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

This table compares T. Rowe Price and Moelis & Company’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

T. Rowe Price has higher revenue and earnings than Moelis & Company. T. Rowe Price is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Moelis & Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for T. Rowe Price and Moelis & Company, as provided by MarketBeat.

T. Rowe Price presently has a consensus target price of $110.38, suggesting a potential upside of 5.19%. Moelis & Company has a consensus target price of $50.25, suggesting a potential downside of 1.37%. Given T. Rowe Price’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe T. Rowe Price is more favorable than Moelis & Company.

This table compares T. Rowe Price and Moelis & Company’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

73.1% of T. Rowe Price shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.8% of Moelis & Company shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of T. Rowe Price shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 52.6% of Moelis & Company shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

T. Rowe Price has a beta of 1.21, indicating that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Moelis & Company has a beta of 1.71, indicating that its stock price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500.

T. Rowe Price pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Moelis & Company pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. T. Rowe Price pays out 51.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Moelis & Company pays out 82.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. T. Rowe Price has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years and Moelis & Company has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

T. Rowe Price beats Moelis & Company on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to individuals, institutional investors, retirement plans, financial intermediaries, and institutions. It launches and manages equity and fixed income mutual funds. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a bottom-up approach. The firm utilizes in-house and external research to make its investments. It employs socially responsible investing with a focus on environmental, social, and governance issues. It makes investment in late-stage venture capital transactions and usually invests between $3 million and $5 million. The firm was previously known as T. Rowe Group, Inc. and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. was founded in 1937 and is based in Baltimore, Maryland, with additional offices in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Owings Mills, Maryland; San Francisco, California; Tampa, Florida; Toronto, Ontario; Hellerup, Denmark; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; Zurich, Switzerland; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; London, United Kingdom; Sydney, New South Wales; Hong Kong; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Frankfurt, Germany, Madrid, Spain, Milan, Italy, Stockholm, Sweden, Melbourne, Australia, and Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Moelis & Company, an investment bank, provides strategic and financial advisory services in the United States and internationally. It advises clients in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets advisory, and other corporate finance matters. The company offers its services to public multinational corporations, governments, financial sponsors, middle market private companies, and individual entrepreneurs. It has strategic alliances with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.; and Alfaro, Dávila y Ríos, S.C. Moelis & Company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Receive News & Ratings for T. Rowe Price Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for T. Rowe Price and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.</s>Plastics packaging specialist Bowler Metcalf has finalised the much-anticipated sale of its 41.38% stake in SoftBev, which bottles niche soft-drink brands like Jive and Pepsi.

A Sens announcement released on Monday indicated that the final enterprise value of SoftBev would be determined by the actual profits achieved by the company for the year ending June 30 2018.

Confirmation of the long-awaited sale provided plenty of fizz to Bowler’s share price, which finished the day 12.2% stronger at R10.10.

SoftBev has been bought by The Beverage Company, parent of Gauteng and Eastern Cape-based beverage producer Little Green Beverages.

Bowler said the minimum consideration for its shareholding would be about R233m after various adjustments.</s>SINGAPORE: Landmark Tower, a condominium next to Pearl's Hill City Park, has been launched for sale again, 11 years after its first, and unsuccessful, attempt.

The owners of Landmark Tower have a reserve price of S$285 million but are expecting more than S$300 million for their site, sole marketing agent JLL said in a press release on Monday (Apr 9).

At the reserve price, the unit land rate reflects at about S$1,400 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf/pr) after factoring in the lease top-up premium. No development charge or differential premium for the intensification of the site is payable up to its “as-built” gross plot ratio, said JLL.

At a selling price of S$300 million, the unit land rate reflects at about S$1,474 psf/pr, which JLL said still compared favourably with the recent collective sale of the 99-year Pearlbank Apartments located nearby, which achieved a unit land price of S$1,515 psf/pr.



Built in the mid-1980s, the 99-year leasehold building at 173 Chin Swee Road comprises 139 units in a single 38-storey apartment block.

This is not the first time the building has been up for en bloc sale, based on past media reports. It was put up for sale in 2007 with an indicative price of about S$300 million, but there were no takers. In 2008, it went on sale again with an asking price of S$270 million, and in 2012 it was launched for public tender with a guide price of S$280 million to S$288 million.

The tender for Landmark Tower closes at 2.30pm on May 17 this year.
The New Zealand Overseas Investment Office approves the sale of clothing company Icebreaker to U.S. retail conglomerate VF Corporation, revealing the sale price as NZ$288 million.