NEW YORK (BRAIN) — Wanda Sports Group, a subsdiary of Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda, is hoping to raise a half a billion dollars in an intial public offering on Wall Street this year. Wanda owns Ironman, other events like the Rock n’ Roll races and the Cape Epic mountain bike race, and the Swiss sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media. Infront owns the media rights for a number of Olympic sports, as well as some media rights for the World Cup. "It’s, arguably, a bigger company and draw for investors than Ironman alone," according to an analysis on Triathlete.com by Kelly O'Mara.
O'Mara reports that the Wanda Sports filing gives some insight into the size of Ironman's revenues.
"Wanda Sports says in its filing it had $1.29 billion in revenue in 2018, up from the year before, though profits have decreased this past year to $61 million. It also says its mass participation business accounts for about one-quarter of total revenue (around $320 million) and Ironman is about 29% of the mass participation segment — that percentage is down from 2017 and 2016 because of other acquisitions. It can be calculated then that Ironman’s revenue was about $91.9 million in 2018, $91.1 million in 2017, and $91.1 million in 2016," the article reads.
The filing also shows that athlete entry fees make up the majority of its event revenues, bringing in around $140 million last year, while sponsorship brought in $78 million and host city fees garnered $29 million.
Full article: Triathlete.com.
