By Savyata Mishra and Abigail Summerville

(Reuters) -Skechers has agreed to be taken private by 3G Capital for $9.42 billion in the footwear industry's biggest buyout to date, at a time when the company grapples with the impact of steep U.S. tariffs.

Investment firm 3G Capital has offered $63 per Skechers share in cash, the footwear brand said on Monday. That represents a 28% premium to the stock's Friday close, according to Reuters calculations.

Its shares jumped 25% to $61.86 on the day, after dropping nearly 30% this year as the company withdrew its annual results forecast in April and warned of the fallout from President Donald Trump's 145% import tariff on Chinese goods.

China accounts for a bulk of imports for the brand's U.S. business.

Skechers, alongside Nike and Adidas America, were among the companies that signed a letter from the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA) urging President Trump to exempt shoes from reciprocal tariffs.

American shoppers are pulling back on spending to brace for potentially higher prices due to tariffs, leading to lackluster quarterly results from several consumer-facing companies including McDonald's and Harley-Davidson.

Founded in 1992, California-based Skechers is among the world's largest footwear brands, popular for its casual athletic styles such as the "Chrome Dome" shoe. It went public in 1999 for $11 a share and logged a revenue of $8.97 billion in 2024.

DEAL 'SURPRISING'

Needham analyst Tom Nikic said the deal talks may have been accelerated by the volatile macro environment - driven by tariffs, weakening consumer sentiment and troubled China-U.S. relations - and the company may have wished to navigate these challenges without being under Wall Street's scrutiny.

The deal is "very surprising" as Skechers has always been viewed as a "family business", with the founding Greenberg family highly involved in the operations, he said.

Sources told Reuters Skechers was not running an auction and the deal was bilateral as 3G Capital has had a long relationship with the Greenbergs.

CEO and founder Robert Greenberg will continue to helm the firm, while president Michael Greenberg and operating chief David Weinberg would also retain their roles.

Buyout firm 3G Capital, controlled by Brazilian billionaire financier Jorge Paulo Lemann, is best known for its investments in the food and drinks sector through companies such as Kraft Heinz .

The Skechers deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025 and will be financed through a combination of cash provided by 3G Capital as well as debt financing that has been committed by JPMorgan Chase Bank.

(Reporting by Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru and Abigail Summerville in New York; Editing by Devika Syamnath)