Prince files for bankruptcy

[Fidget]

http://www.euronews.com/sport/150147...or-bankruptcy/

Prince hasn't had a large footprint on Badminton Central. And I'm unaware of any pro who has played with a Prince in recent times. Nevertheless, they have been significant racket sport company for many years.
Perhaps those who also play and string for tennis have some thoughts?

[kwun]

i just strung a Prince tennis racket not long ago.

for the badminton side of Prince, they have had never gotten much traction, being completely overshadowed by the larger players. their signature "achievement" was the Y-joint strange shaped head that looked different but never really adopted by serious players.

i always thought they have a much better traction on the tennis and squash side of things. but i guess not.

this is probably not as big a loss to badminton than to tennis/squash.

[kwun]

more info:

May 1, 2012

Dear Valued Prince Customer:

This morning Prince Sports Inc. and its U.S affiliates voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 reorganization under the United States Bankruptcy Code for the State of Delaware. We are taking this step at this point in time in order to build the strongest foundation possible for the Prince brand in the future. We anticipate emerging from the reorganization as an enterprise that will provide even better partnership for our customers.

In light of this important announcement, and because of our relationship with your company, I wanted to be in direct contact with you about this development.

Chapter 11 does not mean Prince is going out of business. A formal restructuring will give us the time and resources we need to address our financial challenges while we continue daily operations. This proposed restructuring would relieve the Company of over $60 million of secured indebtedness that would give Prince the relief it needs to focus on building the brand. It would also allow us to reevaluate our business model and ultimately position Prince to compete more effectively.

Subsidiaries outside of the U.S. (including Prince Europe, Prince Benelux, Prince Italy, Prince France, Prince Taiwan and Prince China) are not subject to the proceedings and are expected to operate in ordinary course. We anticipate continuing to serve all of our customers globally during this process.

Your partnership with us is of the utmost importance. We want to assure you, our customers, that we remain deeply committed to delivering the services and innovative products you have come to expect from Prince. To help us best meet your product needs we ask for your support in following our existing business terms and conditions.

Throughout, Prince will continue to focus on what we have always done best—bringing innovative products to market that help athletes take their game to the next level.

All of us at Prince appreciate your support, loyalty and business, and we look forward to continuing to strengthen our relationship with you in the future. You can expect to hear from your sales manager in the coming days to address any more specific questions.

In an effort to provide you with as much information as possible, please click

here

to read the press release related to today’s announcement.

Sincerely,

Gordon Boggis
President and CEO
Prince Sports, Inc.

[Desouled]

I've had the chance to use two Prince rackets - the Black OS and the Black Pearl XP.

Both were oversized, which gave a good advantage for me as I was beginning the grapple the finer points of the game. As time went on and the skills improved, the oversized heads gave less of an advantage though the smashes still came off pretty well because of the increased size of the sweet spot.

Wrote two short reviews of the rackets on the blog:

http://everythinggoeshere.blogspot.c...nce-black.html
http://everythinggoeshere.blogspot.c...ize-black.html

[Optiblue]

GG to Prince~ Their badminton rackets weren't the greatest, but were the worst either~

[zero_hour]

i love my TT2400 so much

[Fidget]

~ Their badminton rackets weren't the greatest, but weren't the worst either~

LOL, what an epitaph! "I'll miss them; but they weren't that special."
(I think my wife has something similar planned for my tombstone.)

[King's]

It will be interesting how Nautic/Benetton/Authentic think of better ways to swap debts (parting ways from either company would be a strategy...significantly devaluing for re-acquisition). Obviously it is the better option for Prince to file for Chapter 11, strategically. Her parent company sure wouldn't want to be saddled with debts. Prince should still be around and in the clear after year 7 of Chapter 11.

Below are quoted from WSJ Blogs:

In the past decade, the company has changed hands through a series of private-equity deals, being acquired most recently in 2007 by Nautic Partners. Nautic bought Prince from Lincolnshire Management, which in turn had purchased it in 2003 from apparel company Benetton Group, the parent of United Colors of Benetton.


The filing says the company has a book value of $54.2 million and debt of about $65 million to Authentic, along with another $12 million in debt to its vendors and other payables.

But at the end of March, Authentic purchased the debt from GE Capital and Madison Capital and said it would acquire the whole company. The bankruptcy documents say the debt will be swapped for the ownership of the entire equity of Prince.

On its website Authentic says it looks to acquire and manage “iconic consumer brands” in segments such as apparel and sporting goods.

[moomoo]

i wonder i we can get any of their current rackets on the cheap. their squash rebel range looks sick!

[Licin]

It will be interesting how Nautic/Benetton/Authentic think of better ways to swap debts (parting ways from either company would be a strategy...significantly devaluing for re-acquisition). Obviously it is the better option for Prince to file for Chapter 11, strategically. Her parent company sure wouldn't want to be saddled with debts. Prince should still be around and in the clear after year 7 of Chapter 11.

Below are quoted from WSJ Blogs:

In the past decade, the company has changed hands through a series of private-equity deals, being acquired most recently in 2007 by Nautic Partners. Nautic bought Prince from Lincolnshire Management, which in turn had purchased it in 2003 from apparel company Benetton Group, the parent of United Colors of Benetton.


The filing says the company has a book value of $54.2 million and debt of about $65 million to Authentic, along with another $12 million in debt to its vendors and other payables.

But at the end of March, Authentic purchased the debt from GE Capital and Madison Capital and said it would acquire the whole company. The bankruptcy documents say the debt will be swapped for the ownership of the entire equity of Prince.

On its website Authentic says it looks to acquire and manage “iconic consumer brands” in segments such as apparel and sporting goods.

It seems like convertible bonds.

[King's]

It seems like convertible bonds.

They got so many names these days and even invent new ones just to meet specific needs. For example, mini-bonds.