Kontoor Completes Sale of Lee to Authentic Brands Group
Kontoor Brands will use the sale to concentrate on Wrangler and Helly Hansen and fund a $400 million accelerated share repurchase.
Kontoor Brands, Inc. (KTB) completed the sale of the Lee® business to Authentic Brands Group on November 2, 2026, finishing a portfolio sale the apparel company had been running since the first quarter of fiscal 2026.
The company announced the close on November 3. Kontoor had already classified Lee as held-for-sale and discontinued operations after launching a competitive process that attracted interest from multiple parties.
The deal is all-cash. The initial $750 million purchase price sits alongside a $250 million earnout that depends on how Lee performs under Authentic’s ownership, for a potential total of up to $1 billion. The buyer is ABG-Storm LLC, a Delaware affiliate of Authentic, which took all outstanding shares of The H.D. Lee Company, Kontoor’s wholly owned Lee subsidiary. After giving effect to the purchase agreement’s adjustment mechanisms, Kontoor received approximately $698.2 million in cash.
Kontoor said the sale sharpens the company around Wrangler and Helly Hansen, two brands it described as having significant white-space opportunities. Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Scott Baxter said, “We now have a more focused, growth-oriented portfolio positioned to deliver stronger returns for our shareholders.”
Lee contributed $195 million of first-quarter revenue and is expected to generate about $750 million of full-year revenue, both now reported in discontinued operations. For the twelve months ended December 2025, Lee posted net revenues of $750.4 million and income from discontinued operations, net of tax, of $81.6 million. In its first-quarter outlook, Kontoor projected full-year continuing-operations revenue in a range of $2.66 billion to $2.71 billion, driven by Wrangler and Helly Hansen.
Kontoor said the divestiture is expected to be immaterial to earnings per share over a 12-to-18-month period, with the Lee earnings contribution offset through capital deployment and restructuring that mitigates overhead previously allocated to the business. In the second quarter, continuing-operations revenue was $584 million, up 19 percent from a year earlier, including Helly Hansen acquired in May 2025. Wrangler global revenue was $469 million.
With the sale closed, Kontoor intends to deploy $400 million of the expected proceeds into an accelerated share repurchase agreement. The company had earlier approved a $750 million share-repurchase authorization alongside the planned Lee sale.