The Ssense founders have finalized the deal to buy the business out of bankruptcy and restructure its operations, winning out over a group of lenders who had been lobbying for a liquidation.
In mid-January, a Canadian court notified Ernst & Young, the business’s monitor, that the bid submitted by the founders, brothers Rami Atallah, Bassel Atallah and Firas Atallah, together with their strategic partner, a leading Canadian multifamily office, had been accepted. The deal closed on Feb. 13.
The Montreal-based retailer was founded in 2003 by the Atallah brothers and is primarily an e-commerce business targeting men and women between the ages of 18 and 40. It also operates one store in Montreal. Last fall, it was deemed insolvent and filed the Canadian equivalent of bankruptcy. Its creditors filed an application to put the retailer up for sale at the same time that the Atallah family put forth a restructuring plan.
In September, the court ruled that the current management team and the company’s board could remain in place and oversee the restructuring and appointed Ernst & Young Inc. to act as monitor. It also obtained $40 million in interim financing.
On Dec. 8, the founders offered a cash payment of $20 million to buy back the business, a price the monitor deemed unacceptable, according to court papers. On Dec. 23, they raised their bid to $58.5 million and also agreed to assume liabilities of $18.2 million, bringing the value of the offer to $78 million.
Although the monitor acknowledged that the second bid was still low, it nonetheless said it believed it would represent the “best outcome for the debtors and all the stakeholders,” according to the document, and would provide for the continuation of the business as a going concern, retain a “significant portion” of its 760 employees and allow for several hundred of its suppliers to maintain their business relationship with the Ssense Group.
And while low, the founders’ bid was still higher than the $49 million to $54 million that was expected to be raised if the inventory was liquidated by Gordon Brothers, which had been retained by the lenders.
The lenders, led by Investissement Quebec and RBC, continued to oppose the sale and seek an order to liquidate the business, but the court opted to accept the Atallah bid instead.
Ssense had sales of $1.3 billion in 2023, $1.23 billion of which came from online sales. At the time of the filing, it had $371 million in debt, with $229 million owed to banks and vendors. At its peak, after the pandemic, the company was valued at $5 billion, according to the court papers.
Ssense, once a leading retailer for luxury, avant-garde and streetwear brands, has been struggling since 2024 when the high-end market began to show signs of strain. The company laid off staff, started discounting heavily, and had stopped paying deposits to emerging brands, sources said at the time. The elimination of the de minimus exemption, which allowed goods under $800 to ship into the U.S. tariff-free, was particularly harmful to the company, which counts 59 percent of its customer base in the U.S. and has an average order size of $549, the court papers said.
But the Atallah family remains hopeful that Ssense can rebound. In a statement issued after the sale was approved, the company said: “After months of uncertainty, the closing of the transaction marks an important milestone and affirms our ability to continue building Ssense for the long term. Our priority throughout this process has been to sustain operations, protect jobs, and provide stability for our employees, customers, suppliers, and partners.
“With the transaction complete, we are moving forward with clarity and confidence. We remain committed to our purpose — moving culture forward and providing a platform to amplify the voices shaping it — and we’re grateful to our community for their support during this time.”
The founders declined a request to provide further detail on the go-forward plan.
