Mountain Equipment Co. may have found a buyer for its struggling retail operations, a competition review suggests, after a months-long search for investment to prop up the business.

On April 9, the federal Competition Bureau opened a merger review for a deal between TGI Holding Inc. and MEC Mountain Equipment Company Ltd., according to the website for the federal watchdog.

The Bureau reviews mergers and acquisitions to ensure they do not harm competition in the Canadian market. The review of the MEC deal is continuing, according to the website.

It is unclear who is behind TGI Holding, or what a deal would mean for the future of MEC’s stores.

MEC spokesperson Jo Salamon declined to comment Tuesday.

MEC filed for court protection from its creditors during the pandemic, and was acquired in late 2020 by California-based investment firm Kingswood Capital Management LP for $150-million. The deal ended the retailer’s 49-year history as a co-operative.

The Globe and Mail reported in January that MEC was up for sale again and had fallen behind on payments to its vendors.

MEC’s business initially rebounded in 2021 following significant declines in the first year of the pandemic. But sales began falling again in 2023, to $382-million compared to $451-million in the prior year, according to a confidential presentation provided to potential bidders for the chain, which was obtained by The Globe.

That document estimated revenue would decline further in the fiscal year ended in February of 2025, and stated that the company requires an infusion of capital to normalize its operations.

A separate “company snapshot” dated August, 2024, which was provided to prospective buyers and also obtained by The Globe, showed that MEC had $89.2-million in debt and $6.4-million in cash as of late June, 2024.

MEC currently operates 23 standalone locations across Canada, as well as three “shop-in-shop” locations within Hudson’s Bay stores. (Faced with its own crisis, Hudson’s Bay is currently liquidating the majority of its stores; two of the MEC shops are located inside Bay stores that have been left out of the liquidations for now.) An additional MEC store is scheduled to open in Nanaimo, B.C. later this year. The company’s e-commerce site accounts for 30 per cent of its sales, according to the confidential presentation.