Gap Plan to Split Swells Fisher Family Fortune to $9 Billion
(Bloomberg) -- Gap Inc.'s decision to split into two businesses is boosting the fortune of the retailer's founding family.
Doris Fisher, who started the Gap with her late husband Donald Fisher, and sons William, Robert and John own about 43 percent of the San Francisco-based firm through a series of trusts and limited-liability companies. Their stake in the company is now worth about $4.9 billion.
Gap said Thursday it plans to separate its Old Navy business into a stand-alone company, while retaining its Athleta and Banana Republic brands. The move sent the stock soaring 19 percent to $30.25 at 10:55 a.m. in New York. That lifted the family's fortune by $786 million to at least $8.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The family has a range of assets outside of Gap. John Fisher also owns the Oakland Athletics baseball team and is an investor in Major League Soccer's San Jose Earthquakes, while Doris has a collection of more than 1,000 works of contemporary art. The family is the country's 26th largest landowner, with about 440,000 acres of California timberland, according to the Land Report.
Last year, the company paid more than $100 million in dividends on shares owned or controlled by the family members, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Shareholders can expect to receive proportional stakes in each of the new businesses, the firm said Thursday. It wasn't clear if the Fishers, who currently hold three of 13 seats on the Gap's board, will keep the same number of spots at both Old Navy and the new firm, which hasn't yet been named.
A Gap spokeswoman said each company will have a dedicated board made up of directors that will reflect the needs of each business. She said it's early in the process and board composition for the two entities hasn't been determined.
To contact the reporters on this story: Anders Melin in New York at amelin3@bloomberg.net;Sophie Alexander in New York at salexander82@bloomberg.net;Devon Pendleton in New York at dpendleton@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
