It is one more cloud on the horizon of the brands bought by the businessman Michel Ohayon. Go Sport France, which houses the French stores of the sporting goods distributor, was in turn placed in receivership, like its parent company in January, announced the Grenoble commercial court on Thursday.
In its judgment dated February 1, 2023, the court “notes the state of cessation of payments and pronounces the opening of the receivership proceedings of SAS Go Sport France”, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Groupe Go Sport, of which it manages stores. This decision was taken at the request of the leaders of the group, specifies the judgment, which comes two weeks after the placement in receivership of Groupe Go Sport, on January 19.
Regarding the January judgment, the Hermione, People & Brands (HPB) group, which oversees Groupe Go Sport, indicated on Thursday that it had appealed the decision of the Grenoble court to place Groupe Go Sport in receivership because we believe that the Go Sport Group is not in default of payments”.
Concern at Gap France
The situation of the company is also the subject of an investigation for “abuse of social property” after “the auditors transmitted several revelations of criminal facts”, according to the terms of the Grenoble prosecutor’s office. Union representatives and the central social and economic committee (CSEC) had questioned the financial health of the group, being alarmed in particular by a rise of 36 million euros in cash from Go Sport to the parent company HPB.
HPB, the distribution arm of Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB), an investment fund run by Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon, announced on January 12 “the acquisition of Gap France by Go Sport” for an amount of 38 million. This, while HPB had bought Gap France for a symbolic euro in 2021. “Financial transfers between a parent company and its daughters are legal, everything was done within the framework of the law”, assured in an interview with Challenges end of January Michel Ohayon.
This operation and the “lack of transparency” on the part of the management, however, raised the concern of the 350 employees of Gap France, who exercised their right to alert at the end of January in order to obtain information on the situation of their company. . An expert appointed by the CSEC will have two months to carry out investigations.
Some Camaïeu employees are also wondering
At Camaïeu, taken over in August 2020 by Michel Ohayon at the helm of the Lille Commercial Court before being brutally liquidated in September 2022, some of the 2,600 former employees are also wondering about the bankruptcy of their company. On January 26, justice ordered the liquidators of Camaïeu and the FIB to provide accounting documents, requested in particular to “identify the operations with the other companies of the group, in particular Go Sport”, explained the lawyer for these 250 ex- employees, Fyodor Rilov.
The order of the Commercial Court of Lille, consulted by AFP, specifies that the requested documents which would not be in the possession of the liquidators must be provided by the FIB and its distribution branch Hermione, People & Brands (HPB) within fifteen days. , under penalty of a fine of 3,000 euros per document and per day of delay.
“We will appeal this decision if it obliges us to provide under penalty documents that we do not have and cannot have”, had then reacted the management of HPB. She had indicated that she had not yet “been able to read the deliberations or the list of documents requested”.