The announcement comes on the eve of a hearing before the Grenoble Commercial Court. The owner of Go Sport, HPB, one of the companies in the Ohayon galaxy, has announced that it has given up presenting a continuation plan for the future of the sports equipment distributor.
“It is with regret that we have announced to the commercial court that we are giving up our draft continuation plan”, announced in a press release addressed to AFP, the director of communication Franck Geretzhuber. According to HPB, it is the procedure adopted by the judicial administrators which “had the consequence of preventing the conclusion of the discussions that we had with a partner from the world of sport, strongly interested in our continuation project”.
In the absence of a continuation plan, the court will therefore study on Tuesday the twenty offers to resume the activities of the sports goods distributor bought in 2021 by the Hermione People & Brands holding company for a symbolic euro and in receivership since the month of January. It was on the day the takeover bids closed, on March 10, that HPB announced its intention to remain in control of the brand. At the same time, the holding company had tried to challenge the receivership decision issued on January 19 by the commercial court, claiming that it was not in a state of insolvency.
A series of liquidations in Michel Ohayon’s group
But his appeal was rejected last week by the Grenoble Court of Appeal. “Groupe Go Sport is indeed in a state of cessation of payments on the date the Court of Appeal rules”, affirms the judgment which reports a shortage of available assets of approximately 30 million euros at the March 23 last.
The withdrawal of HPB comes as the group of Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon is going through a difficult period. After the liquidation of the Camaïeu brand (2,600 employees) last September, the group’s holding company, Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB), declared itself insolvent, the Gap brand (350 employees) recently acquired by Go Sport has been placed in receivership and 25 Galeries Lafayette stores have been placed in safeguard proceedings.