According to France’s Authority on Competition (Autorité de la Concurrence), Schiever, an international retail group based in Burgundy, is looking to acquire full control of 25 Intersport stores (20 retail stores and five outlets) and two Go Sport stores – as well as four stores of the ready-to-wear chain Blackstore.
The proposed acquisition also includes a business for the sale of sporting goods to municipalities and sports clubs, a logistical business, and all creation or opening of stores to follow the Agreement Protocol.
The Authority’s preliminary evaluation will last no longer than 25 working days. A second evaluation to clear up doubts over the deal could take up to 65 working days.
As CMDsport and others are reporting, the 25 Intersport stores are under the management and ownership of Tousports, a holding company owned in turn by Intersport France’s CEO, Jacky Rihouet. Indeed, the stores in question – most of them located in northern France – make up the near entirety of Tousports’ assets.
Intersport is France’s second-largest vendor of sporting goods after Decathlon. According to BFM Business, however, it is France’s top vendor of textiles (footwear included), ahead of both Decathlon and the big-box store E.Leclerc.
Schiever, meanwhile, is a family-owned group operating chiefly in France – with a presence in Poland, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – and in several industries (retail food and hardware distribution, supply chain, real estate, buying groups).
Intersport, in a joint venture with the Qatari firm Al-Mana, acquired Go Sport Group earlier this year, taking charge of 72 stores and retaining about 92 percent of the staff.
