£200m DEAL TO TAKE OVER TOP CYCLING KIT MAKER

A PAIR of billionaire heirs have won the £200m race to snap up the upmarket cycling brand Rapha.

Steuart and Tom Walton, grandsons of Walmart founder Sam Walton, have taken a majority stake in the Tour de France kit maker via their investment vehicle RZC.

The deal will likely secure a windfall for Rapha founder Simon Mottram, who is understood to have sold some of his 20pc holding.

Multiple buyers were rumoured to be circling the firm, though some were believed to have been put off by the company’s lofty selling price, which was 20 times its annual profits.

But, as heirs to the Walmart fortune, Steuart Walton, 36, and Tom Walton, 33, are set to inherit a share of the family’s £115bn net worth.

It is also understood their interest in Rapha, which has five ‘clubhouse’ stores in the US and four in the UK, and previously sponsored the successful Team Sky cyclists, is partly down to Tom Walton’s keen interest in mountain biking.

Rapha did not disclose the size of the Waltons’ stake, or how much they bought it for.

Rapha was founded by Mottram in 2004 after he saw a gap in the market for fashionable, non-garish polyester cycle-wear.

It is currently ramping up its expansion in the US and said the sale will help it expand its reach globally.