The case in summary: Today begins the trial in Agder District Court between former ski jumper Anders Jacobsen and Just Padel Group (JPG). The dispute concerns the sale of a padel center that they owned together until autumn 2021. Jacobsen believes that the then owners of JPG, Jesper Mathisen, Ole Martin Årst and two businessmen, got him to sign a new shareholders’ agreement with an obligation to sell more, at the same time that they kept secret a sales process with Swedish We Are Padel (WAP). JPG was sold to the Swedish company for NOK 84 million, but Jacobsen is said to have only been told a sales price of NOK 45.5 million. Jacobsen therefore claims that he received over NOK 3 million too little for the shares when the padel center was sold. The trial will last three days, and Mathisen and Årst are scheduled to testify in the case on Wednesday. Mathisen and Årst reject Jacobsen’s claims, as does JPG. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. – We wish we weren’t here, but that’s the way it is, says former ski jumper Anders Jacobsen to news during the first day of the trial. The reason for the dispute is the sale of a padel center in Hønefoss, which Jacobsen owned together with Just Padel Group (JPG) until autumn 2021. At that time, the parent company JPG was owned by the former football profiles Jesper Mathisen and Ole Martin Årst, as well as two businessmen. Jacobsen believes they got him to sign a new shareholder agreement with an obligation to sell more. At the same time, they are said to have kept hidden an ongoing sales process with Swedish We Are Padel (WAP). JPG was later sold to the Swedish company for NOK 84 million. But Jacobsen and other local center owners are said to have only been informed of a sales price of NOK 45.5 million. – It has not been played with open cards here. Then we’ve ended up here, and I think that’s boring, says Jacobsen. Claims to have received too little Today, the trial started in the Agder district court, where Jacobsen claims that he received over NOK 3 million too little for the shares when the padel center was sold. – I wish we could have found this out in a different way, through dialogue earlier, says Jacobsen. He has previously told news that he feels led astray by what he thought were friends and collaborators. – I feel deceived by what I thought were my friends, and that they have treated me badly. For me, this is more about principles and justice than it is about money. The reason for the dispute, which is now coming to court, is the sale of a padel centre, for which Anders Jacobsen believes he got too little. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB – Thundering disagreement Mathisen has denied that the four previous owners had done anything wrong. – We strongly disagree with what Jacobsen claims, and look forward to testifying in the case between Just Padel Group and Jacobsen in March, Mathisen told VG. Mathisen is today known as a football expert on TV 2. After repeated attempts, none of the football profiles, or the two local businessmen in JPG, wanted to be interviewed by news. The trial will last three days. Mathisen and Årst are scheduled to testify in the case on Wednesday. – The most interesting thing will happen tomorrow when the former shareholders will give their testimony about what was the basis for the sale, says lawyer for Jacobsen’s holding company, Jan Magne Isaksen. He will not predict how good a case he thinks they have, but believes that when Jacobsen has chosen to take this step, they believe that an injustice has been committed. Three days have been set aside in court where Anders Jacobsen has sued Just Padel Group for withholding information about the sale to a Swedish padel company. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB Rejects Jacobsen’s claim JPG’s lawyer Yngve Andersen in Wigemyr does not want to comment on the case in court, and refers to his closing submission. There he denies that Jacobsen is entitled to more money for the shares. He writes that Jacobsen “on the contrary” has received a “very high” sale amount for his shareholding. – The company should be very satisfied that the shares were sold while the padel market was still at its peak in Norway, writes Andersen. – Withheld information about documentary evidence At the same time as the parties have been preparing for trial, a parallel legal process has been running. It has gone to both the district court and the court of appeal regarding which documents, e-mails and messages from Mathisen and the other former owners that JPG has to share with Jacobsen. The company and the new Swedish owners disagree that they have to share the messages. Furthermore, they say that they did not have access to old e-mail accounts and previous editions of the share sale agreement that was entered into with the Swedish owners. This was rejected by both the Agder District Court and the Court of Appeal. JPG has appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. TV2 profile Jesper Mathisen “resoundingly disagrees” with Anders Jacobsen that the former ski jumper was led astray when Just Padel Group was sold in autumn 2021. Photo: Fredrik Varfjell / NTB – Desired confidentiality Both e-mails and messages between the parties will be central in the court case, since there is a lot of disagreement about how the sales agreement should be understood. Jacobsen claims the case is about fulfilling the agreement that was originally entered into about equal price for the shares in the event of a possible sale of the padel center in Hønefoss. The price for all the shares in JPG and the padel centers ended at NOK 84 million. Jacobsen claims that this agreement was changed the day before signing. Mathisen and the other former owners are said to have wanted NOK 38.5 million to go directly to them for “trademark, structural capital and signed, but not yet operational courses” in JPG. Neither the sale process, the purchase price nor the division shall have been shared with the local owners of the padel centers in the agreement with the Swedes. According to Jacobsen, they were later told that it was the Swedes who wanted secrecy. Jacobsen’s lawyer, Jan Magne Isaksen, presented on Tuesday what is supposed to be evidence that, on the contrary, it is Mathisen and the other owners of JPG who wanted to keep this hidden. Can trigger tax liability The lawsuit from Anders Jacobsen does not have to be the only thing that causes headaches for the former owners of JPG. On Saturday, news was able to reveal that what was eventually communicated to Jacobsen about the sale to the Swedes could trigger a huge tax bill. Jacobsen is said to have received an e-mail in which it was argued that the secret amount, which Jacobsen later found out was NOK 38.5 million, was for the expansion plans of JPG, and that the former owners committed themselves to: “… to work on this for quite some time to come. They then get our expertise, our experience, track record and media surface / value, as well as the group’s leading market position.” Basically, share sales are tax-free for limited companies according to the so-called exemption method, tax law professor Arve Aage Skaar at UiO explained to news. As a result, Mathisen, Årst and the other two former owners of JPG will not be taxed on the transaction, since they owned the shares through private investment companies. But when the sale price is for more than the company’s “assets”, the situation becomes different, according to the professor. Ole Martin Årst sold the shares through his investment company Årst Sport & Media AS. According to tax experts, it does not necessarily mean that the transaction was tax-free if he was paid for more than the value of the shares. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB He says the question has come up in the Supreme Court several times, and the case law is clear in the area: – The remuneration for work effort linked to a share sale is taxable as employment income according to the tax act, says Skaar. On the part of the 38.5 million that cannot be linked to the actual value of the shares, the tax rate will be very high, explained associate professor Tormod Torvanger at the Norwegian School of Economics: – Then there will be tax on ordinary income, social security tax and normally also step tax on the seller shareholder’s hand, a total of 47.4 per cent. In comparison, companies that sell shares are normally completely exempt from tax, writes Torvanger in an e-mail to news.
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