GPF Partners has taken what appears to be a controlling stake in Nox, as CMDsport and others have reported. The pádel brand’s founder and CEO, Jesús Ballvé, will be remaining in place.
Together with the new shareholder, Nox’s management has come up with a three-part plan: to consolidate its position in its current market through quality control, to explore other racquet sports, such as pickleball, and to mirror the international expansion of pádel as a sport.
Nox saw the light of day in 2008 and maintains its headquarters in Barcelona. Its specialty is high-end pádel racquets and balls and related textiles and shoes. Over the years it has begun operating outside of Spain in other EU countries, the US, the United Arab Emirates and Latin America.
FY 2022’s revenues amounted to €27.76 million, up by 162 percent year-one-year, with a net profit €6.68 million. About half of current sales come from foreign markets, and the company expects the proportion to rise as pádel spreads from country to country. It opened its own factory in Paraguay in 2023.
GPF Partners was established in 2015 by current Managing Partners Martín Rodríguez-Fraile, Ignacio Olascoaga, Lorenzo Martínez de Albornoz and Guillermo Castellanos. It says it has some €1.2 billion under management between its various entities. It has invested not just in sports but also in real estate, agriculture and streaming, among other things.
GPF took a stake in Grupo Tansley in April 2022. Shortly thereafter, as we then reported, Tansley put together a majority stake in the Spanish sporting-goods retailer Fútbol Emotion.
Last year, as CMD notes, GPF also took a stake in another racquet-sports concern, the Rafa Nadal Academy, which has international expansion plans of its own.
