U.K. Firm Buys 4% of L.A. Gear

A British clothing and shoe company with ties to Reebok International and Adidas, the world’s top two athletic shoemakers, bought a 4% stake Tuesday in troubled L.A. Gear, the No. 3 sneaker maker.

Pentland Group, which helped launch Reebok and owns a 20% stake in the German parent of Adidas, invested $14 million in L.A. Gear and agreed to help the Marina del Rey company with some of its manufacturing operations in Far East plants. L.A. Gear said it expects to lay off about 100 workers in the Far East as a result.

L.A. Gear sold Pentland 1,244,445 new shares at $11.25 per share, the closing L.A. Gear price Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. Pentland received options to buy 400,000 additional shares, half at $13.50 and half at $16.125. The announcement of the deal came after the close of trading Tuesday, when L.A. Gear stock fell by 50 cents a share to close at $10.75.