The Camaieu shareholder “asked the State for an advance” to complete its recovery plan for the northern prêt-à-porter giant, in suspension of payments, which foresees the closure of 208 stores and the elimination of some 500 jobs from some 2,600, the management told AFP on Monday. “It would be a state intervention under a reimbursable advance,” Wilhelm Hubner, president of Hermione People and Brands (HPB), the distribution division of the Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB) of businessman Michel Ohayon, who took over Camaieu in 2020, told AFP.
This request is currently being discussed with the government while the Lille commercial court is due to examine on Wednesday Camaieu’s continuation plan, placed in receivership on August 1 with debts of 240 million euros, including some 70 million unpaid rents, according to Wilhelm. Hubner.
“Everyone knows that there is an emergency” to save Camaieu, which HPB “is the only one” that can do it, after the withdrawal of several candidates from the takeover bid, including the US fund Gordon Brothers, Wilhelm Hubner advanced. If the stimulus package is rejected by the trade court, the other option would be liquidation, he said.
According to this plan, Camaieu “would be separated from 208 structurally unprofitable stores”, keeping 308, and preserving “80% of the 2,600 jobs”, he explained. Its financing is based on the sale -if authorized by the court- of the headquarters and warehouse of Camaieu, in Roubaix, which would be bought by FIB, for 14 million euros with a view to “its valuation” and then to its resale, supposedly contribute according to Wilhelm Hubner “from 55 to 63 million euros”.
Restore business balance
In support of the request for judicial administration of the company, HPB – owner in particular of Go Sport, La Grande Récré and 23 stores affiliated with Galeries Lafayette – invoked the consequences of a judgment of the Court of Cassation that requires merchants to pay unpaid rent during the health crisis period. Camaieu, according to its leaders, had already been weakened by a series of difficulties: a health crisis, a cyber attack costing 40 million euros and consequences of the war in Ukraine.
As of August 2020, the FIB had taken over 511 of the 634 Camaieu stores in France and some 2,600 employees out of more than 3,100, as part of a sale piloted by the commercial court. The new management had given itself two years to rebalance the company. But operating losses reached $93 million on $333 million in billings during the 16-month period since the acquisition.
Source: BFM TV
