Among the twenty buyout offers from the sports article distributor, it was that of Intersport which was favored by the Grenoble court on Friday.
The Grenoble commercial court rendered its judgment this Friday, April 28 in favor of the takeover of the sporting goods group Go Sport by Intersport.
In receivership since January, the sporting goods group of Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon was bought for an overall sale price of just over 35 million euros, according to the judgment consulted by BFM Business.
Intersport France aims to take over 72 stores, 1,446 employees out of the 1,574 stores, and 185 head office employees (Groupe Go Sport), or 90% of jobs.
For his part, the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure considers that this is “good news” but gives “priority” to the support of employees not included”.
Twenty offers
“We are delighted with this decision and this favorable outcome for the future of Go Sport and its employees”, commented in a press release the current owner, the Hermione People Brand Group (HPB), a company of the Ohayon empire. who had given up in the home stretch to present a continuation plan.
Among the twenty takeover offers received by the court as part of a transfer plan, that of Intersport in a joint venture with a Qatari company, Al-Mana had emerged alongside that of its British competitor Frasers- Sports Direct.
“Two very serious offers”, with “limited social damage”, then estimated Christophe Lavalle, Force Ouvrière delegate and member of the CSE of Go Sport, which gives priority to “the preservation of the maximum number of employees”.
“Go Sport looks like us, with hiking, skiing, cycling … and similar employee profiles as DNA,” Intersport CEO Jacky Rihouet explained to AFP last March. “And we have a geographical complementarity: where Intersport is weak, Paris and the Paris region, Go Sport has a strong network. And Go Sport is rather absent from areas, in the provinces, where we are very strong.”
“Social Criteria”
In a judgment obtained by BFM Business, the court found that Intersport’s offer offered more guarantees “with regard to social criteria”, because the group “has a larger number of employees”, “a commitment to matching at PES [Plan de Sauvegarde de l’emploi]“substantial and “reclassification proposals for employees not included”.
“In terms of the sustainability of the activity, the Court notes that at the helm the representative of the company Sports Direct has several times indicated on the one hand that he could not provide any guarantee on the maintenance of employment within 2 years, and on the other hand that the Go Sport brand had no future”, adds the document.
The difference in terms of the proposed takeover price also played into the decision, with the insolvency administrators noting “a substantial difference of 24 million euros between the two proposals”.
The court thus followed “the unanimous opinion of the prosecution, creditors and employees”, notes in a press release taken up by AFP the assistant prosecutor François Touret de Coucy.