Twenty candidates for the takeover of Go Sport will defend their offer on Tuesday before the Grenoble commercial court. The HPB holding company hopes for a continuation of the activity of the Isère group placed in receivership.
Sale to a buyer or “continuation plan”? The Commercial Court of Grenoble will examine Tuesday April 18 the future of the Isère group Go Sport, in receivership since January. While around twenty buyers have applied to take over the sporting goods distributor, the Hermione People & Brands (HPB) holding company, one of the subsidiaries of the empire owned by the Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon, hope to keep control.
HPB has already tried, in vain, to thwart the receivership decision pronounced on January 19 by the commercial court. His appeal was rejected Thursday by the Grenoble Court of Appeal, according to a judicial source. The holding company will defend its project on Tuesday morning before the commercial court.
Trust with Michel Ohayon is broken.
Christophe Lavalle, FO delegate and member of the CSE of Go Sportat AFP
It remains to be seen whether his continuation plan will succeed in convincing the court, while the Ohayon group is going through a difficult patch. After the liquidation of the Camaïeu brand – 2,600 employees – in September, the group’s holding company, Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB), declared itself insolvent in early February. The Gap brand, with 350 employees, was placed in receivership and 25 Galeries Lafayette stores were placed in safeguard proceedings.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial investigation for “organized gang fraud, habitual money laundering, bankruptcy and abuse of social property”as an extension of information opened in Grenoble following “several revelations of criminal facts” reported by Go Sport’s auditors.
The 2,200 employees of the sporting goods specialist are worried about their future. “Trust with Michel Ohayon is broken. We prefer to leave with serious people, who know how to manage a business”Christophe Lavalle, Force Ouvrière delegate and member of the CSE of Go Sport, told AFP.
“We have two very serious offers, with limited social damage”, he underlines while avoiding any prognosis. Two of the takeover offers emerge from the file that AFP was able to consult at the registry: that of the Intersport France group backed by a consortium, and that of the British Frasers, via his company Sports Direct.
In its offer, Frasers indicates that it wants to take over 117 employees out of the 237 at the Go Sport Group headquarters, and 1,504 employees out of the 1,618 at the Go Sport France stores. The group also wants to take over 74 stores, with an investment of “more than 120 million euros in this takeover project over the next three years”.
Sports Direct’s social practices have been heavily criticized in the past, particularly in relation to working conditions. The concentration operation must also be analyzed by the Competition Authority, as indicated by the institution in a press release, at the beginning of April.
Intersport France, for its part, presents an offer which is intended “joint”more “not united”with several companies: the Chaussea shoe stores, the British company B&M France, which in 2018 bought the Babou discount stores – which became B&M -, and a Qatari company, Al Mana, which operates Go Sport franchise stores in several countries from the Middle-East.
The court can differentiate this set of offers with different unfolding. Individually, Intersport France proposes to take over 1,130 employees and 48 stores as well as the “Endurance Shop” brand, with a planned investment of “nearly 23 million euros” as soon as the recovery “in equity” et “bank loans for more than 30 million euros”.
Together, the offers propose to take over 1,240 employees and 56 stores. The “Go Sport” brand would then be taken over by the Qatari company. Chaussea and B&M would each take over four stores and around fifty employees.
Other buyers are also in the running: local companies, some of which are franchised under the Sport 2000 brand, or groups such as Centrakor Stores, La Foir’Fouille or even LIDL. In total, more than twenty buyers applied.
These companies are offering partial takeovers of the assets and employees of Go Sport and will defend their offer at the start of the afternoon during Tuesday’s hearing. The judgment of the commercial court is expected between the end of April and the beginning of May, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The parent company Groupe Go Sport brings together the activities of the distributor’s headquarters, in Sassenage (Isère), and 46 master franchise stores internationally. Its subsidiary Go Sport France brings together 82 integrated stores, 87 franchise stores (Go Sport and Endurance Shop) as well as online sales.
With AFP
