The parties in the padel lawsuit against former ski jumper Anders Jacobsen explained themselves in the Agder District Court on Wednesday. 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, 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 a co-sale obligation. He believes that at the same time they must have kept hidden an ongoing sales process with Swedish We Are Padel (WAP). Dispute over sale price 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. Jacobsen therefore believes he received NOK 3.1 million too little for the shares in the padel center in Hønefoss. Former ski jumper Anders Jacobsen. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB The ski jumper has stated to news that he feels led astray by the former owners of JPG. – 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, said Jacobsen. Mathisen rejected this on the contrary from the witness stand: – When Anders is clear and clear that he was so dissatisfied, then in our eyes he appears as a liar, said Mathisen. Mathisen has not wanted to be interviewed in this case. Could have done things differently Mathisen did not hide the fact that they could communicate better about the sales process with the Swedes, and it went “very quickly”. A meeting with the local padel center owners is said to have been held on 14 September 2021 about the future they would build together, at the same time as they are fully engaged in negotiations with the Swedes about a possible sale. – Of course, it was a little uncomfortable to hold the meeting as normal. We kept our focus on operations, but considered coming up with excuses to postpone the meeting, Jesper Mathisen said in the witness box. At a digital meeting a few weeks later, Jacobsen and the other padel center owners were told that JPG and their centers had been sold. The core of the dispute has been that of the purchase price of NOK 84 million, NOK 38.5 million was kept out of the pricing of the local padel centres. This was later to have been explained to Anders Jacobsen to be for brand names, what they referred to as “structural capital”, as well as signed non-operating lines. Jesper Mathisen was asked about this division by both parties’ lawyers. He believes that there was clearly more value in the padel courts that JPG had under “upgrade”, than the courts that the local padel center owners contributed with. – We thought that the courses we had planned were just as valuable as the courses we already had operational, said Mathisen. – The Swedes were just as interested in the halls we had in the “pipeline”, explained Mathisen further. – The brand, however, was probably more ourselves, than the actual brand name Just Padel. The secrecy about the sales process to the Swedes was what we wanted, Mathisen acknowledged. – We wanted all the focus to be on operations. It would create noise if the process became known, said Mathisen. Got more money for the shares Jesper Mathisen thought they went to great lengths to make Jacobsen happy, and that he got more money for the shares after he signaled that he disagreed with the pricing. – He wanted to buy the shares back, and then he got NOK 500,000 more for the shares and had NOK 320,000 covered in transaction costs, Mathisen said in court. Along the way, Jacobsen did not show that he was dissatisfied, claims the football profile. – This dissatisfaction came later, Mathisen claimed. Nor was it the case that we did not take risks for the facility in Hønefoss, said the former footballer. – We offered both knowledge and a rent guarantee, said Mathisen. Jacobsen was offered access to the entire sales agreement with the Swedes if he signed a confidentiality agreement, according to Mathisen. – He rejected this, said Mathisen. – The plan was to run the centre. Anders Jacobsen repeated the experience of being deceived during his party statement. – I would like to collaborate with them, but I would own most of the center myself, Anders Jacobsen then told in the witness box. He admitted in court that the shareholder agreement with what appeared to be a co-sale obligation was presented to him and that he did not think much before signing it. At the time, he was not aware that the sale process with the Swedes was almost complete. – I took it to mean that we were going to work together for quite a few years. I felt that safe. It was my friends and I therefore did not check it that much more closely, said Jacobsen. He says it was an “awful” amount of work to get the center at Hønefoss up and running, and that he did most of it himself. – The plan was all along to run the centre. This is what I was going to do going forward, he explained. When he learned from other disgruntled padel center owners that the original selling price was “too” low, he wanted a higher price. – I wanted to buy the shares back, but they offered me a higher price for them, said Jacobsen. In total, Jacobsen received NOK 3.9 million for the shares in the padel center at Hønefoss. Never seen such behaviour. Also called as witnesses were several padel center owners who refused to sell their shares to JPG in connection with the sale to the Swedes. Both Ketil Nystad from Vestland Padel and Andreas Nilsson from Larvik Padel refused the agreement presented to them by Mathisen and the other former owners of JPG. At times there were strong emotions and a tense atmosphere in the witness questioning in Agder district court. – I was pissed off and sorry for what has come out afterwards about how they wanted to distribute the purchase price, said Nilsson. – In reality, they wanted us to accept half the price for our pitches than they got for theirs, Nystad said in court. Nystad strongly disagreed that there were values in JPG which defended that the former owners should have more for their shares than the local padel center owners. – That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. The brand name was practically non-existent, and the future was a castle in the air, said Nystad.
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– Appears to be a liar – news Sørlandet – Local news, TV and radio
