International groups wanting to ride the waves with surfwear firm Rip Curl

Australia’s beaten down retailers have proved attractive for buyout firms this year as harsh trading conditions battered sales and share prices. Rip Curl’s larger rival Billabong International is fielding two private equity bids.

Earlier, a source said Rip Curl could seek about 10 times its forecast fiscal 2013 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of A$48m.

Rip Curl, founded in 1969 by friends Doug ‘Claw’ Warbrick and Brian ‘Sing Ding’ Singer near the surfing haven of Bells Beach, southwest of Melbourne, is one of the three largest global surfwear brands.

The company said it has appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch to assess the merits of introducing an investor to the group.

“We have recently received unsolicited approaches from several international organisations which have indicated a desire to invest in our company,” Rip Curl said in a statement.

It added that unaudited revenues and earnings for the year to June had increased over the prior year, in contrast to general surf industry performance.

Rip Curl competes with Billabong and Quiksilver, which was also founded near Bells Beach in 1969 but listed in the United States in 1986.

Billabong, which is struggling after a debt-fuelled global expansion just before the financial crisis hit, has had two takeover offers worth $700m, from US private equity firm Bain Capital and from TPG Capital. Both are examining Billabong’s books.

Rip Curl is a manufacturer and retailer, with stores in Australia and New Zealand, the United States and Canada, Europe and South America.

It has one main brand, unlike Billabong, which owns many brands.