A big name in private equity could hit the public market.

L Catterton, backed by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy and its CEO Bernard Arnault, is in talks with investment banks to go public, according to Reuters. 

Both an IPO and a SPAC merger are on the table as potential options. 

The consumer brand-focused fund has $28 billion in assets under management. It holds majority stakes in at least 54 companies, including Birkenstock and apparel maker 2XU.

Its minority investments include:

• Peloton
• Equinox
• Fitness and wellness network companies ClassPass and Xponential
• Apparel brand Sweaty Betty
• At-home fitness companies Hydrow and Tonal
• At least 60 other companies, including Honest, Vroom, and Savage Fenty

L Catterton was founded in 2016 by private equity firm Catterton, Louis Vuitton owner LVMH, and Groupe Arnault, the holding company for the Arnault family. Bernard Arnault is among the world’s wealthiest individuals, with a net worth of $186.3 billion, per Forbes.

Discussions are still in the exploratory stages, and no course of action has been finalized for L Catterton. 

Dyal Capital Partners, the one private equity firm currently permitted to invest in multiple NBA teams, went public in May through a SPAC merger.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert reiterated last week that expanding the league is a priority. Charlotte, Houston, Philadelphia, and Toronto have been identified as potential expansion cities.

How much would a new WNBA team cost? Bankers estimated that the 2019 sale of the New York Liberty — a bigger-market team — was in the $10 million to $14 million range.

Interest in the WNBA has spiked exponentially in the last year.

• Viewership in the U.S. this season was up 74% on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 through the first five games of the season. Canadian viewership increased 325%.
• The WNBA Finals saw a 15% year-over-year increase in viewership last year.
• In May, Google joined Nike, Deloitte, and AT&T as a WNBA Changemaker.
• Amazon purchased exclusive streaming rights to 16 WNBA games each season in a multiyear deal.

The league started with just eight teams in 1997 but doubled by 2000. It has since dropped back down to 12. Six teams have folded — Charlotte, Cleveland, Houston, Miami, Portland, and Sacramento.

“In men’s sports, the narrative isn’t that you have to have 30 financially healthy teams before you expand,” Engelbert said. “In women’s sports, the narrative is we have to have 12 healthy teams before we’ll do anything.”

The breakout Netflix series “Drive to Survive” crystallized the drama and intrigue of Formula 1’s recent seasons. Now F1 is making adjustments to pack more action into its live product.

F1 debuted a new “sprint” format to determine pole position at the British Grand Prix over the weekend. The 62-mile race, one-third the length of the Grand Prix, is meant to deliver an accessible, high-octane spectacle.

The Italian Grand Prix will also use the sprint format, as will a third, to-be-determined race outside Europe.

On Thursday, F1 also revealed a new concept car designed for higher-speed turns, among other things.

F1’s revenue surged to $180 million in Q1, compared to a pandemic-affected $39 million from the same period in 2020.

The format changes could be good for casual fans as F1 seeks to capitalize on the boom in interest brought by the Netflix series.

• F1 had 99% growth across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube in 2020.
• June’s French Grand Prix scored the second-highest cable audience in F1 history, eclipsing 1 million viewers on ESPN. As of June, viewership was up 53% compared to 2020, and 38% compared to 2019.

F1 will have another major opportunity to grow its American audience in 2022, when Miami joins Austin as a U.S. host city in the global race series.

F45 Training, a Mark Wahlberg-backed operator of fitness classes, had an uneventful market debut after a $325 million initial public offering. 

The company sold more than 20 million shares at $16 apiece in the offering. 

The shares opened at $17 on Thursday but closed at a modest $16.20, dipping further to $16.10 at close Friday. The numbers are still enough to give F45 a market value of $1.46 billion and provide Wahlberg with at least a 200% return on his investment within three years.

Wahlberg invested in F45 in 2019 through MWIG LLC, a private investment company that he partially owns. At the time, F45 was valued at roughly $450 million.

It’s been a long process for F45 to go public. 

• The fitness company was seeking an IPO before the global pandemic, but put its plans on hold. 
• The delay was compounded by a merger with Crescent Acquisition, a blank-check company, that dissolved in October.

For the first three months of 2021, F45 reported $37 million in revenue with a net loss of $18 million, according to filings. 

Last week, SmartFit, one of Latin America’s biggest gym chains, announced plans to raise $445 million in an IPO.