A few days after the online sporting goods retailer Signa Sports United NV (SSU) and numerous subsidiaries had to file for bankruptcy, the provisional insolvency administrators Christian Gerloff and Stefan Meyer took an initial interim assessment of the ongoing proceedings on Tuesday. They explained in a joint statement that they had already succeeded in implementing “important measures” to “continue operational business operations and initiate the first steps for future solutions.”
At Tennis-Point GmbH and Internetstores GmbH, which includes the online platform Fahrrad.de, “agreement was reached with the provisional creditor committees on how to proceed,” the statement says. “The operational business of both companies continues, all stationary stores remain open.” “Returns of goods and complaints for both old orders and new business” will also be “reliably processed as before.”
New owners are to be found for the tennis point and internet stores using “structured investor processes”.
It is also planned to set up “structured (separate) investor processes” in a timely manner in order to “achieve viable future solutions for both companies under new ownership,” said the two lawyers. According to their own statements, this project received a considerable response in a short time: “In the past few days, a large number of interested parties from home and abroad have already actively registered for both companies and will be integrated into the structured processes,” explained Gerloff and Meyer. An “investor solution that includes both the activities of Tennis-Point and Internet stores” is also “conceivable”, but is currently “not being pursued as a priority”.
In the wake of the wave of insolvencies within the SSU Group, Christian Gerloff from the law firm Gerloff Liebler Rechtsanwälte was appointed as provisional insolvency administrator for the umbrella company Signa Sport United NV as well as Tennis-Point GmbH and Internetstores GmbH. Stefan Meyer from Pluta Rechtsanwalts GmbH took on this role in the proceedings of Signa Sports United GmbH and the logistics company Publikat GmbH.
“Given the existing interconnectedness of the companies in the individual proceedings, both lawyers worked closely together to achieve an appropriate and resilient future solution with the best possible satisfaction for creditors,” says the joint statement.