A group of Dutch citizens is making a new attempt to acquire an interest in department store chain HEMA. She wants to collect millions of euros from private and professional investors, according to the Financieele Dagblad.
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The citizens have united in a collective called ‘The Only Dutch Alternative (Hena)’. A fundraising campaign started today / Monday. You can participate from 10 euros. In her own words, Hena aims “at people and institutions that have a warm heart for the retail chain”.
It is not the first attempt by ordinary citizens to save the traditional Dutch retail chain HEMA. The above-mentioned citizens’ initiative would even have made an offer this summer, but that was rejected because it did not have sufficient resources. Now the idea is to have Hena join one of the two remaining bidders, FD writes. The citizens’ initiative would then take a minority stake.
“We want to prevent HEMA from falling back into the hands of the next loveless investor who just wants to get money out of it,” says PvdA MP Mei Li Vos, one of the initiators of the citizens’ initiative. “The interests of employees and customers must come back to the fore.”
Heavy indebtedness
For years, HEMA had to contend with a heavy debt burden, which became even more problematic due to the corona crisis. In June it became known that the retail chain was in the hands of a group of foreign bondholders. In exchange, they dropped the company’s debts for 300 million euros. But the new owners are now looking for a buyer for HEMA. There are still two bidders, the Financieele Dagblad writes: the British investor Alteri and a coalition around the Dutch investment company Parcom, including former HEMA owner Marcel Boekhoorn and Jumbo family Van Eerd. It is not clear whether they want to cooperate with the citizens’ initiative Hena.
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