- Investor consortium with founder Christian Miele and led by the investment company Orlando Capital V takes over the entire business operations of Tennis-Point GmbH as part of an asset deal
- In addition, the consortium is acquiring the shares in the sales companies in France and the USA from Signa Sports United GmbH
- Insolvency proceedings of Tennis-Point GmbH opened as planned on January 1, 2024
- Insolvency administrator Dr. Christian Gerloff: "We have succeeded in finding a good solution for the future of Tennis-Point within just two and a half months."
Bielefeld/Munich, January 8, 2024 - Tennis-Point, the tennis equipment supplier belonging to the Signa Sports United Group (SSU), has found the perfect solution for the future: a consortium of investors led by the investment company Orlando Capital V and including the company founder and current Managing Director Christian Miele will take over and continue the business of the internationally operating e-commerce specialist. The investors concluded a corresponding agreement with the insolvency administrator of Tennis-Point GmbH, lawyer Dr. Christian Gerloff, for the acquisition of the company's assets.
In addition, the consortium has held negotiations with the insolvency administrator of Signa Sports United GmbH, lawyer Stefan Meyer, on the acquisition of the interests in the distribution companies in France and the USA (share deal) and reached a verbal agreement. The results are currently being put in writing and are to be formally concluded today.
The Tennis-Point units to be acquired (including France and the USA) currently have a good 700 employees, including just under 400 in Germany. The transaction is expected to be closed by February 1 of this year. The parties have agreed not to disclose the economic conditions.
Alongside other companies in the SSU Group, Tennis-Point GmbH and SSU GmbH filed for insolvency last October. The Bielefeld Local Court ordered provisional insolvency in both cases. On 1 January 2024, insolvency proceedings were opened for the companies' assets and Dr Christian Gerloff (Gerloff Liebler Rechtsanwälte ) and Mr Stefan Meyer (PLUTA Rechtsanwalts GmbH) were appointed as insolvency administrators for Tennis-Point GmbH and SSU GmbH respectively; both had already acted as provisional insolvency administrators.
Current management remains
In addition to Munich-based Orlando Capital V, the consortium of buyers also includes a group of investors led by the East Westphalian entrepreneurs Dinko Muhic, Thomas Hagedorn and Christian Hülsewig as well as Tennis-Point Managing Director Christian Miele. Miele is one of the founders of the company in 2007. The consortium has announced that Tennis-Point will continue to operate as an independent company. The current management team of Christian Miele and Stefan Salzer will remain on board.
Specifically, with the approval of the creditors' committee of Tennis-Point GmbH, it was agreed that the consortium would take over all assets of Tennis-Point GmbH, including the shares in its sales subsidiaries in Germany and abroad, as part of an asset deal.
Tennis-Point GmbH, based in Herzebrock-Clarholz in East Westphalia, sells a wide range of tennis products and operates various online stores (including www.tennis-point.de), 13 brick-and-mortar stores in Germany and 20 other stores in other European countries via subsidiaries. SSU GmbH, based in Berlin, acts as an umbrella and service company and provides services for the operating companies of the SSU Group, in particular in the areas of IT, HR, legal, etc.
In addition to Tennis-Point, the SSU Group primarily includes Internetstores GmbH, which covers the online trade in bike products. Insolvency proceedings were also opened for Internetstores GmbH on January 1, 2024 by the Local Court of Bielefeld; the ongoing investor process is at an advanced stage but has not yet been completed.
Lawyer Dr. Christian Gerloff : "We have succeeded in finding a good solution for the future of Tennis-Point within just two and a half months and in successfully completing the investor process just a few days after the insolvency proceedings were opened. This is not only due to Tennis-Point's strong international market position in e-commerce retail, but also to the great commitment of the management and employees in recent weeks. In this way, we were able to stabilize the operating business and continue it without restrictions. The solution that has now been found will benefit not least the employees, who will have the opportunity to continue Tennis-Point's success story under new management."
Attorney Stefan Meyer: "The close coordination and constructive, professional cooperation in the individual insolvency proceedings of the Signa Sports United Group, namely with the management teams in the companies on the one hand and in particular with our colleague Dr. Christian Gerloff and his team on the other, was and is a key factor in reaching successful restructuring and continuation agreements quickly. This has now been achieved in an exemplary manner in the Tennis-Point case. This makes me confident that we will also achieve good solutions in further proceedings."
Georg Madersbacher, Partner Orlando Capital GmbH: "Tennis-Point has built up an excellent market position in the international market for tennis products in recent years. The acquiring consortium is convinced that the company will continue its success story with the right measures. To this end, we will provide Tennis-Point with the necessary financial resources. The agreements that have now been reached are a clear signal to all customers, suppliers and employees that the period of uncertainty for the company is over."
About the project teams involved
- The team from Gerloff Liebler Rechtsanwälte included lawyer Dr. Christian Gerloff (insolvency administrator), legal clerk Christian Stoffler, lawyer Benedikt Gatt, lawyer Christian Rogner and Ina Josefiak (business economist).
- The PLUTA Rechtsanwalts GmbH team consists of attorney Stefan Meyer (insolvency administrator) as well as attorney Christoph Chrobok, attorney Nadja Neuber, attorney Dr. Uwe Paul and attorney Oliver Westkamp.
- The insolvency administration of Tennis-Point was legally supported by the law firm GÖRG under the leadership of Michael Nienerza and Christopher Schiller (M&A). Management consultants PWC with Timo Klees and Fabian Dalka/Julia Jaumann managed the investor process. The buy-side advisors were management consultants Troesser & Co with senior advisor Dr. Mischa Ritter and Latham & Watkins with Ulrich Klockenbrink, Leif Schrader and Christina Mann.
Press contact Gerloff Liebler Rechtsanwälte :
Frank Elsner
Frank Elsner Communication for Business GmbH
Phone: +49 - 5404 - 91 92 0
Mail: frank.elsner@elsner-kommunikation.de
Press contact PLUTA:
Patrick Sutter
relatio PR
Phone: +49 89 210 257-22
Mail: presse@pluta.net
About Gerloff Liebler Rechtsanwälte
Gerloff Liebler Rechtsanwälte is a law firm in Munich specializing in insolvency law. The firm's practice focuses on insolvency administration (including plan proceedings and self-administration) as well as other areas of business law advice such as corporate restructuring and out-of-court liquidation proceedings. The firm also has extensive expertise in related areas such as employment law, corporate law and banking law.
The law firm was founded in 1982 by Dr. iur. Wolfgang Ott as an individual law firm and today has a team of around 40 employees. For many years, the insolvency specialists Dr. iur. Christian Gerloff, Dr. iur. Marco Liebler and Christian Stoffler have been appointed as insolvency administrators and trustees by several local courts in southern Germany. In the meantime, many hundreds of insolvency proceedings of various sizes have been handled as standard or self-administration proceedings - from medium-sized individual companies to listed groups - in numerous sectors of the economy, often with an international radius.
The outstanding insolvency proceedings in recent years have included the fashion manufacturers Escada AG/Escada SE, Rena Lange, Laurèl GmbH and Gerry Weber International AG (as CRO), the automotive suppliers Angell-Demmel, Weber Automotive (administrator), Arlington Germany (CRO) and Rüster GmbH (CRO), the specialty chemicals producer SKW Stahl-Metallurgie AG (administrator), the hospital chain Sanitas Group, the Munich-based real estate group Infraplan, the fashion store chains Rudolf Wöhrl AG (CRO), K&L Ruppert and Adler Modemärkte (CRO) and currently real GmbH (administrator).
About PLUTA
PLUTA helps companies in legally and economically difficult situations. Since its foundation in 1982, PLUTA has grown steadily and today employs around 500 people in Germany, Spain and Italy. More than 290 business people, business economists, lawyers, commercial lawyers, tax consultants, auditors, sworn accountants, economists, bankers, accountants, engineers and insolvency administration specialists, including many with multiple qualifications, provide practicable, economically viable solutions. PLUTA provides support in particular for the restructuring and continuation of companies in crisis or insolvency situations and, if required, also deploys restructuring experts to the company's executive bodies. PLUTA is one of the top reorganization and restructuring firms, as evidenced by rankings and awards from INDat, JUVE, The Legal 500, Who's Who Legal, brandeins and Focus. Further information can be found at www.pluta.net