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Saw this day coming. Surprised it didn’t come sooner as the company has been up on the selling blocks for the last few years. A bit sad to see the company to be sold since I started my career there. Interested to see how the brand will evolve from here. Will it stay highly limited or increase its distribution. Who knows, the change in management might be actually good for the company. Smart move by IT as the market in China for “streatwear” is starting to experience a boom. Imagine how Bape first opened up here in NY, that’s how it is now there. Read the financial details after the jump.

Hong Kong-based I.T Ltd said Tuesday it has bought 90 percent of Nowhere Co., the corporate parent of Japanese street label A Bathing Ape, known as Bape, for 230 million Japanese yen, or $2.8 million at current exchange rates.

I.T said it plans to fully consolidate Nowhere into the company. It also said that Tomoaki Nagao, best known by the name Nigo, will serve as a creative director of Nowhere for an “initial period of two years”. The statement said he will oversee product design, brand direction and image development.

Music impresario Nigo founded Nowhere and incorporated it in 1995.

“We are delighted about this acquisition of Nowhere, which owns of some of the most sought-after brands in street wear fashion. We believe that this acquisition will broaden the brand portfolio of our Group and increase our market share in the street wear fashion in Greater China. It will also help position us better in tapping into the international market,” Sham Kar Wai, I.T chairman and chief executive, said in a regulatory statement via the Hong Kong stock exchange.

I.T is Bape’s distributor for Greater China. Most recently, I.T dedicated the lower level of its new I.T Beijing Market store, developed in tandem with Comme des Garcons, to a Bape boutique.

via WWD