Performance Sports Completes Sale of Assets to Investor Group

In the culmination of a complex cross-border bankruptcy process on February 28, Paul, Weiss client Performance Sports Group Ltd. (PSG) completed the sale of its assets to an investor group led by Sagard Holdings Inc. and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. The new, privately held company will be a leading developer and manufacturer of ice hockey, roller hockey, lacrosse, baseball and softball sports equipment, and related apparel. Its products will be sold under the BAUER, MISSION, MAVERIK, CASCADE and EASTON brand names and will be marketed and distributed worldwide. As U.S. debtor’s counsel, Paul, Weiss advised PSG on a court-supervised sale and auction process.

The $575 million asset sale, approved by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, represents a new chapter for PSG, which commenced concurrent creditor protection proceedings in Toronto and Wilmington on October 31, 2016 under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The Sagard/Fairfax-led investor group made the “stalking horse” bid at the outset of the auction process, which was ultimately determined to be the successful bid. Both Canadian and U.S. federal courts approved the sale and associated reorganization transactions pursuant to orders dated February 6, and supplemented on February 10.

Upon completion of the sale, PSG ceased to exist as an operating business and will now turn to allocating and distributing the sale proceeds to the debtors’ stakeholders through liquidation plans in the U.S. and Canadian bankruptcy proceedings.

The Paul, Weiss team included, among others, bankruptcy partner Alice Eaton and counsel Claudia Tobler and Diane Meyers; litigation partners Moses Silverman, Aidan Synnott, Jacqueline Rubin and Leslie Fagen; corporate partners Angelo Bonvino, Andrew Foley and Thomas de la Bastide and counsel Nathan Sawyer; tax partner David Mayo; intellectual property partner Claudine Meredith-Goujon; antitrust counsel Marta Kelly; and employee benefits partner Lawrence Witdorchic and counsel Jason Ertel.