2023-04-18 16:07:37
Last straight line for Go Sport and its 84 stores, in receivership for three months. This Tuesday, April 18, the Grenoble commercial court is examining the future of this chain of stores, which employs 1,800 employees and was until now the property of businessman Michel Ohayon. After contesting the cessation of payments procedure, the latter gave up on Monday evening to file a project to continue to operate Go Sport. It is probably the lack of financial means that pushed him to throw in the towel. In addition to Go Sport, the clothing retailer Gap and a company that owns several buildings and hotels also belonging to Michel Ohayon have also been placed in receivership. It is a good part of the empire of the Bordeaux entrepreneur which today seems threatened with collapse. And this at a time when the Paris prosecutor’s office has just opened a preliminary investigation for “organized gang fraud, habitual money laundering, bankruptcy and abuse of corporate assets” concerning suspicious movements of funds between the different companies of the group.
Michel Ohayon prevented by his financial difficulties and his legal troubles, Go Sport will therefore be sold to a new owner. Among the twenty takeover offers filed with the Grenoble Commercial Court, two really stand out. The first comes from the Intersport cooperative, with 700 stores in France. It is in competition with the project filed by the British chain of stores SportsDirect, number 1 in the sector across the Channel, which is seeking to develop in France.
Lack of cash
According to information obtained by Liberated, the two offers are now quite close socially. Nearly 90% of the 1,800 employees would be taken over. Each of the two candidates also came to present their project to the elected representatives of the Go Sport corporate social committee (CSE). But, quite a rare occurrence, the employee representatives did not come out in favor of one or the other of the two takeover offers: the CSE of Go Sport said to itself “share”, given the few differences between the two proposals.
This afternoon, the judges of the Grenoble Commercial Court will therefore examine the offers as well as the report of the judicial administrators who have also taken note of the takeover projects and will formulate their recommendations. No decision should be made today. Judgment will be deliberated and rendered in the coming days. Go Sport no longer has a lot of cash to pay salaries and replenish its stocks, essential conditions to ensure the sustainability of the company.
If the sports brand is in the process of finding a recovery solution, the Grenoble commercial court will also soon have to rule on the fate of the 20 Gap stores owned by Michel Ohayon in France and their 360 employees. The situation of the latter company is even more fragile because, for the time being, most takeover projects only concern part of the stores, which would lead to the disappearance of the Gap brand in France.
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