Adidas is actually hindering the divestiture of Rockport, which was supposedly bound to be bought out by a major investor: Charlesbank. Last May, US Rockport, a footwear brand focused on making comfort shoes, submitted a petition to join Chapter 11. Subsequently, the company, while striving hard to find a solution to its financial problems, opted to sell the business to CB Marathon Opco LLC, a subsidiary of Charlesbank Capital Partners. Divestiture was due to come to completion by the end of July. Yet, as reported by Footwear News, Adidas, which held the ownership of Rockport from 2005 to 2015, allegedly submitted an official objection to the transfer deal. In fact, according to information currently available, Adidas and Reebok claim a credit, the second and the third one respectively, unsecured by Rockport: the former amounts to 58 million dollars (50 million euros), the latter amounts to 12.5 million dollars (that is, 10.7 million euros). Adidas claims that they might run the risk of losing part of their credit, should the transfer get approved. No comment from Adidas.
This transfer is not appropriate: why is Adidas hindering Rockport’s comfort shoes buyout?
