The French retail group PPR is poised to launch a bid that would add Puma, the German sportswear maker, to a fashion range that already includes Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney.

The group is understood to be in advanced talks to acquire a near30 per cent stake in Puma held by Gönter and Daniela Herz, the heirs to the Tchibo coffee empire, as a prelude to launching an offer for the rest of the shares in a deal worth more than €5.4 billion (£3.7 billion).

Shares in Puma, which is quoted on the Frankfurt and Munich bourses, jumped by almost 10 per cent on Thursday on market rumours that PPR could launch a bid before the German group’s annual meeting on Wednesday.

Puma could not be reached for comment yesterday, while a spokeswoman for PPR said: “It is rumour and, as a matter of policy, the company never comments on speculation.”

The German company was founded in 1924 as Gebröder Dassler Schuhfabrik — the Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory — by Rudolf Dassler, whose brother Adolf, or “Adi”, Dassler, went on to found the rival sports firm adidas. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Jesse Owens, the legendary American track athlete, won four gold medals wearing Dassler shoes. The company changed its name to Puma Schuhfabrik in 1948 and became a public company in 1986.

Analysts said that the deal would be a logical one for PPR, which has a strong presence at the luxury end of the market but lacks a casual brand for daytime and sportswear.

In recent years Puma has repositioned itself as a hip “lifestyle” brand, signing up designers such as Neil Barrett and Jil Sander while launching new product lines such as travel wear. In 2002, Serena Williams won the US Open tennis championships wearing a black Puma catsuit, and two years later the company teamed up with Philippe Starck, the design world’s “king of cool”, to launch a new range of hip foot-wear.

PPR recently reaffirmed that it had sufficient financial fire-power to target medium to large-sized acquisitions, while insisting that it was in no hurry to spend its resources.

Puma, famous for its leaping cat logo, has been the subject of bid speculation for several months, with Nike, its American rival, tipped as a potential suitor. The speculation was further fuelled after the Herz family lifted its holding from 17 per cent to almost 30 per cent.

Last year Puma reported a 33 per cent jump in sales to €2.37 billion, but net profits fell by 7.9 per cent to €263.2 million owing to higher marketing costs incurred during the football World Cup in Germany, when it sponsored the victorious Italian team.

Footwear accounted for 60 per cent of sales, with 34 per cent coming from clothing and the rest from accessories.

Sibling rivalry, family fortunes

–– Billionaire siblings Gönter and Daniela Herz started investing in Puma after an acrimonious break-up of Tchibo Holding, their family’s coffee and consumer products company
–– They sold their combined 40% interest in Tchibo to their mother, Ingeburg, and siblings Joachim, Michael and Wolfgang for an estimated $5 billion in August 2003
–– They became the biggest shareholders in Puma in May 2005 when their Mayfair investment vehicle paid more than €500 million for a 16.91% stake, since topped up to almost 30%
–– The business interests of Gönter, 66, a horse racing fan, and Daniela, 53, include Germanischer Lloyd, a provider of classification and certification services for the maritime industry. Gönter is on Puma’s supervisory board

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