Tennis-Point GmbH has reached an agreement for the future with a consortium of investors.
The investor consortium, which is led by the Munich-based investment company Orlando Capital V and which also includes Christian Miele – one of the founders of the tennis retailer – is taking over the entire business operations of Tennis-Point GmbH from the Signa Sports United Group (SSU), announced the law firm Gerloff Liebler Rechtsanwälte and Pluta Rechtsanwalts GmbH on Monday. The investors concluded a corresponding agreement on the acquisition of the company’s assets with the lawyer Christian Gerloff, insolvency administrator of Tennis-Point GmbH.
They also secure shares in the sales companies in France and the USA from SSU. To this end, the consortium conducted negotiations with lawyer and SSU insolvency administrator Stefan Meyer from Pluta Rechtsanwalts GmbH and reached an oral agreement. The results are currently being written down and will be formally finalized today, according to the statement. The takeover currently affects around 700 employees – including France and the USA – including 400 in Germany. The transaction is expected to close by February 1st. It was agreed not to disclose the economic conditions.
Tennis-Point GmbH, SSU GmbH and other companies had to file for bankruptcy last October after the insolvent main shareholder Signa Holding withdrew its financing commitment. After the preliminary proceedings, insolvency proceedings were opened on January 1st by the responsible local court in Bielefeld regarding the assets of the companies Tennis-Point GmbH and SSU GmbH. As in the preliminary proceedings, Gerloff and Meyer were appointed as insolvency administrators at Tennis-Point and SSU respectively.
“It was possible to find a good future solution for Tennis-Point within just two and a half months and to make the investor process a success just a few days after the opening of the insolvency proceedings,” said Gerloff. “This is not only due to Tennis-Point’s strong international market position in e-commerce, but also to the great commitment of management and employees in the past few weeks. In this way, we were able to stabilize the operational business and continue it without restrictions.”
Tennis-Point will continue to operate as an independent company
In addition to Orlando Capital V and the current managing director Miele, the investor consortium also includes a group of investors around the East Westphalian entrepreneurs Dinko Muhic, Thomas Hagedorn and Christian Hülsewig. They plan to continue running Tennis-Point as an independent company. The current managing directors Miele and Stefan Salzer remain active in their positions.
“Tennis-Point has built up an excellent market position in the international market for tennis products in recent years,” said Georg Madersbacher, partner at Orlando Capital GmbH. “The acquiring consortium is convinced that the company will continue its success story with the right measures. We will provide Tennis-Point with the necessary financial resources to achieve this.”
Tennis-Point GmbH, based in Herzebrock-Clarholz in East Westphalia, operates several online shops that offer tennis products. There are also 13 stationary stores in Germany and 20 additional stores in other European countries via subsidiaries.
Internet stores: ongoing investor process
Insolvency proceedings were also opened by the district court in Bielefeld on January 1st for Internetstores GmbH, which also belongs to the SSU Group. The company’s ongoing investor process, which includes the online platform Fahrrad.de, is at an advanced stage but has not yet been completed, according to the statement.