The company Go Sport France has been placed in receivership, two weeks after its parent company, the sporting goods distributor Groupe Go Sport, according to a judgment of the Grenoble Commercial Court made public on Thursday. The court, in its judgment dated February 1, 2023, “noted the state of cessation of payments and pronounced the opening of the receivership proceedings of SAS Go Sport France”, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Groupe Go Sport, of which she manages the stores.
“A shortfall in assets of 158 million euros”
This decision was taken at the request of the leaders of the group, specifies the judgment, which mentions “a shortage of assets of 158 million euros”. The latter is “the consequence of the denunciation of the cash agreement previously granted by the parent company Groupe Go sport”, said assistant prosecutor François Touret de Coucy in a press release.
Groupe Go Sport had itself been declared in receivership on February 19 by the Grenoble commercial court. The prosecution then stressed that the situation of Go Sport France, spared at the time by this measure, would however be “impacted by that of its parent company”. At the end of December 2022, after a first hearing, the justice had given an investigating judge the mission to “make a precise statement of the financial situation” of the Go Sport group and its subsidiary, with the help of its audit firms and of its auditors.
Investigation for “abuse of social property”
Union representatives and the central social and economic committee (CSEC) had questioned the financial health of the group in recent months, expressing alarm in particular over a rise of 36 million euros in cash from Go Sport to its parent company, the group HPB. The prosecution had indicated in January that it had opened an investigation for “abuse of social good” concerning Go Sport after “the auditors transmitted several revelations of criminal facts”.
These court decisions come a few weeks after the liquidation of Camaïeu – which belonged to the same group (Hermione, People & Brands), distribution branch of the Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB), an investment fund of the Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon.