Slovenian Merkur, which is in the process of rehabilitation, is threatened with bankruptcy due to banks’ tactics to convert their claims into equity in the largest chain for selling technical goods.
This is the fourth largest Slovenian chain by size and revenue, writes the Ljubljana daily newspaper “Dnevnik” on Friday.
At the shareholders’ meeting of Merkur on December 10, a proposal will be decided upon for banks to write off 24 million euros of claims against the company and convert 63 million into their equity. If the banks do not agree, the existing financial restructuring plan will no longer be possible, and the management will have to initiate proceedings leading to bankruptcy, the newspaper writes.
In that case, “Dnevnik” states, banks would incur an unofficial estimated loss of 150 million euros, significantly more than the loss they anticipate under the recapitalization and partial write-off scenario.
The group consisting of a dozen banks would thus jeopardize 1,700 jobs at “Merkur” and as many jobs in associated companies, but bankruptcy would also affect the banks to which “Merkur” has repaid 80 million euros in loans over the past two years, as well as the state, which has received 54 million euros from him in taxes, contributions, and customs during that period.
According to “Dnevnik”, banks are maneuvering with the recapitalization, especially Banka Koper, which is owned by the Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo, allegedly due to the interest of an Italian company that is interested in Merkur’s sales network if the company goes bankrupt.
Initially, it was believed that banks would only sell Merkur at the end of the rehabilitation process, but now they are already looking for a strategic investor to sell it by the end of next year or at the latest by early 2014, the newspaper states.
