BikeCo, LLC, a joint venture consisting of Tiger Capital Group and Advanced Holdings Co. Ltd., has acquired the assets of Advanced Sports Enterprises (ASE). The winning bid, approved by the bankruptcy court on February 1, exceeded $23 million.
BikeCo, LLC will operate the wholesale business as Advanced Sports, Inc. LLC. (ASI) and include ASI’s bike trademarks Fuji, Kestrel, SE, Breezer and Tuesday, and component brand Oval Concepts.
“We are committed to ASI’s long-term success,” stated joint venture representatives Ryan Davis and George Hsu, executives at Tiger Group and Advanced Holdings, respectively. “With this purchase, we intend to build on and improve the existing infrastructure of ASI’s wholesale distribution business.”
Davis and Hsu added that the new owners plan to keep the ASI brands and retain the vast majority of the staff in the company’s Philadelphia headquarters.
“We have some exciting product launches under our existing brands in the very near future,” said Karen Bliss, ASI’s chief marketing officer. “We look forward to providing a compelling selection of products and excellent customer service to our dealer network.”
According to Bicycle Retailer, the other buyers were Amain.com, Inc., the parent company of Amain Hobby, and Amain Cycling, an e-commerce retailer, and K&B Investment Corporation, a real estate investment company connected to the Miami-based distributor J&B Imports.
Amain will buy the Performance Bicycle and Nashbar e-commerce businesses. K&B agreed to purchase ASE’s property and buildings in North Carolina and Philadelphia.
Amain has not indicated whether it will assume the leases on 62 Performance Bicycle stores that remain open. Forty have already been closed so far in bankruptcy proceedings. ASE began liquidating all 102 Performance Bicycle locations about a month after filing for Chapter 11 on November 16 with hopes of relaunching the chain post-bankruptcy.
A judge approved the group’s winning bid on Friday. A sales closing was expected Tuesday.
