Paris (awp/afp) – The British group Frasers, owner of Sports Direct and which wants to expand in Europe, defended this Friday with AFP its offer to take over the majority of the Go Sport group’s stores, which would be an “accelerator” for expansion and will be examined in mid-April by the courts.

“Our business is very strong in the UK and Ireland, two mature markets and we believe it is time to expand further into Europe,” Ger Wright, the group’s chief operating officer, told AFP on Friday. Europe.

Frasers, which operates the Sports Direct, House of Fraser (department store) and Agent Provocateur (lingerie) brands, was created in 1982.

The group achieved in its last annual financial year, ended on April 24, 2022, 4,800 million pounds sterling in turnover (approximately 5,800 million euros at the exchange rate at that time), of which 26,000 million only with its sporting goods distribution business in United States. Kingdom.

The brand, which has 30,000 employees, currently has 7 stores in France. “When we looked at the opportunity to acquire Go Sport, we thought there were perfect synergies and that it could help accelerate our strategy,” explained Ger Wright.

Go Sport, a brand in the galaxy of businessman Michel Ohayon in the midst of financial collapse, was declared bankrupt by the Grenoble Commercial Court earlier this year.

In this context, a call for candidates had been launched to take over this company based in Sassenage, in Isère, and the two main offers came from a competitor of Go Sport in France, Intersport, and from another part of Frasers.

Intersport France told AFP that it wanted to take over, through some of its independent members, “a very large range of stores, more than two-thirds”.

For its part, Frasers says it wants to take over 74 of Go Sport’s 81 stores, 1,504 employees at the point of sale and 177 employees at the headquarters, located in Grenoble.

Hermione People & Brands, which is the entity that brings together the different retail brands that Michel Ohayon has bought (Gap, La Grande Récré, some Galeries Lafayette in the region, etc.), intends to present a “continuation plan for activity” that the Grenoble commercial court will examine on April 18, before considering the various takeover bids. Until that date, the candidates for the OPA can improve their offers.

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