Making good on its intent to eliminate noncore operations, Dallas-based sports equipment marketer Sport Supply Group (OTCBB:SSPY) has sold Athletic Training Equipment Co. (“ATEC”) to AMER Sports Co., the sole stockholder of Wilson Sporting Goods, for $10.5 million.
The company has said recently that it would sell some operations to reduce its debt and operating expenses in an effort to return Sport Supply Group to profitability. Emerson Radio Corp. (AMEX:MSN) owns approximately 53% of the company’s issued and outstanding capital stock.
“In order to strengthen our balance sheet, we decided to renegotiate our bank indebtedness through the sale of ATEC,” said Sport Supply Group president/CEO Geoffrey P. Jurick in a company release. “Due to the fact that ATEC became consistently profitable after we acquired the operation out of bankruptcy in 1997, SSG was able to realize a significant gain on this transaction.”
Sport Supply Group is also bent on selling or closing certain of its unprofitable stores. In October, the company sold all of the assets (other than cash and accounts receivable) of its Little Rock, AR-based store Spaulding Athletic, and closed its Larry Black store in Enid, OK. In November, Sport Supply Group sold substantially all the assets (other than cash and accounts receivable) of its Varsity Sports store in Wichita, KS.