Stingrayvilla
Contributor
An interesting blog by Darcy Kieran published in Scubanomics -
We reported back in April that dive gear manufacturer Aqualung couldn’t pay its debt after cash had been siphoned out of the company by its owner, Montagu Private Equity. We also reported that the principal Lender, Barings, had put forward a proposal to take control of Aqualung after a French judge ordered Aqualung to find a remedy to its operational and financial difficulties.
And the proposal went forward. Aqualung’s principal lender, Barings, is now scheduled to take control of the company. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the Fall of this year.
Barings is an investment management firm owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and operating under MassMutual Financial Group.
Therefore, the famous French company will now be American-owned.
However, we should not expect this ownership situation to remain as such for long. Barings’ interest in Aqualung is strictly financial. Barings wants to recuperate the money it loaned to Aqualung. So we should expect Barings to flip Aqualung at their first opportunity, which is what these types of investors do.
In the meantime, to try to help Barings recuperate as much of its money as possible, Aqualung has been under the leadership of Bruno Cercley since June 2022. Cercley has extensive experience in... the ski industry! Cercley hired Scott Rittscholf as president for the American operations in August last year. Rittscholf also comes with experience in the ski industry as well as biking.
So the big question remains: What kind of vision do these financial and ski executives have for the dive equipment industry besides cutting costs and increasing prices?
We reported back in April that dive gear manufacturer Aqualung couldn’t pay its debt after cash had been siphoned out of the company by its owner, Montagu Private Equity. We also reported that the principal Lender, Barings, had put forward a proposal to take control of Aqualung after a French judge ordered Aqualung to find a remedy to its operational and financial difficulties.
And the proposal went forward. Aqualung’s principal lender, Barings, is now scheduled to take control of the company. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the Fall of this year.
Barings is an investment management firm owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and operating under MassMutual Financial Group.
Therefore, the famous French company will now be American-owned.
However, we should not expect this ownership situation to remain as such for long. Barings’ interest in Aqualung is strictly financial. Barings wants to recuperate the money it loaned to Aqualung. So we should expect Barings to flip Aqualung at their first opportunity, which is what these types of investors do.
In the meantime, to try to help Barings recuperate as much of its money as possible, Aqualung has been under the leadership of Bruno Cercley since June 2022. Cercley has extensive experience in... the ski industry! Cercley hired Scott Rittscholf as president for the American operations in August last year. Rittscholf also comes with experience in the ski industry as well as biking.
So the big question remains: What kind of vision do these financial and ski executives have for the dive equipment industry besides cutting costs and increasing prices?
