Rip Curl owners knock back offer from surf rival

THE owners of Rip Curl have knocked back an offer to split off the Torquay-headquartered brand and merge it with a rival surf business.

The board of directors of parent company KMD Brands has also dismissed a suggestion Stokehouse Unlimited could buy out Rip Curl completely.

Stokehouse, a US company that owns brands such as Vissla, Amuse Society and Sisstr, formally put its proposal to Rip Curl earlier this year.

Under the proposal, KMD would demerge Rip Curl into a stand-alone company listed on both the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX), and then merge this company with Stokehouse.

After the merger, Stokehouse shareholders would own 22 per cent of the new entity, and Stokehouse chief executive Paul Naude would become its new CEO and lead it from California.

Naude is a former executive at Billabong and founded Vissla in 2013.

In a statement to the ASX and NZX on 24 March, KMD said its board had “carefully evaluated the proposed transaction” and “determined that it is not in the best interests of shareholders” for several reasons, including that the relative ownership splits did not reflect the earnings contribution of the underlying businesses and Stokehouse was not introducing any new capital.

“The concept proposed by Stokehouse creates no value for shareholders and is challenging from an execution standpoint,” KMD chair David Kirk said.

“In addition, the combination of multiple surf brands that directly compete with each other is not a strategy that has proven effective.

“Our focus remains on executing the Next Level strategy, which has already gained momentum.”

Last week, KMD released another statement to the ASX and NZX saying that after the demerger was rejected, Naude “indicated Stokehouse may present a proposal to acquire Rip Curl for an unspecified price which would purportedly exceed the current market capitalisation of KMD”.

The board had not received such a proposal, KMD stated, and was “not minded to provide access to due diligence to Stokehouse given the price, terms and executability of any such transaction by Stokehouse remains uncertain”.

Brian Singer and Doug “Claw” Warbrick founded Rip Curl in Torquay in 1969.

KMD, which also owns Kathmandu and Oboz, acquired Rip Curl from Singer and Warbrick in October 2019 for about A$350m.

Rip Curl’s total sales increased by 4.6 per cent to NZ$291.4m (A$239.32m) in the first half of the 2025-26 financial year.