Umbro owner in joint bid for Le Coq Sportif / Photo: © AFP/File
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Umbro owner in joint bid for Le Coq Sportif
A consortium that includes the US owner of sportswear brand Umbro and French telecom billionaire Xavier Niel unveiled Wednesday an offer to acquire France's struggling sportswear label Le Coq Sportif for 60 million euros ($68 million).
Know for its iconic Gallic rooster logo, Le Coq Sportif designed outfits for French athletes at the Paris Olympics last year, but the company has been under court-ordered administration since November.
Founded in 1882, Le Coq Sportif employs 300 people in France and makes jerseys for Argentina's rugby union team and French football club Nice.
In a statement published the day after the deadline for takeover bids, the consortium said its goal was to "refocus Le Coq Sportif on its core identity as an accessible and popular brand, and expand it globally with major financial support to revive this iconic French label".
The bid is led by Neopar, a French investment firm specialising in business turnarounds, which has a 51 percent stake in the project.
Another 26.5 percent is held by a group of investors including Niel, members of Le Coq Sportif's founding family and Marc-Henri Beausire, chief executive of the brand's parent company, Airesis.
Inconix, the US company that owns sportswear firms Umbro and Starter and denim brand Lee Cooper, has a 22.5-percent stake in the bid.
The consortium would immediately inject 60 million euros into Le Coq Sportif and save its historic site at Romilly-sur-Seine in northeastern France.
A decision on the company's takeover will be decided by the Paris commercial court later in May or early June, according to a source close to the matter.
Le Coq Sportif owes between 60 million and 70 million euros to public creditor.
K.Sutter--VB
