Invited on BFMTV, the Minister of the Economy will set up “a mechanism for consultation and conciliation” for companies that are too indebted. This will allow them to spread out or even cancel part of their debt, he assures us.
As state aid will be restricted, companies indebted since the crisis will multiply. A central question for the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, invited this Wednesday on BFMTV, evoking “all these companies which are threatened with bankruptcy, which are facing a wall of debt.”
“I will do my best to avoid bankruptcy in our country” he assured, recalling in particular that companies wishing to obtain an additional period of one year for the repayment of their loan guaranteed by the State (PGE) must make the request. “It’s not automatic,” he warns.
But many companies must also repay their conventional loans, contracted before the crisis, and which weigh on their cash. Bercy therefore wants to do prevention.
“I want us to look (…) to find out which companies are starting to see a real debt problem,” explains Bruno Le Maire. “At that time, I propose that we can bring together all the stakeholders, that is to say the State of course but also the auditor, the representatives of the commercial court and also obviously the creditors, that is to say the bankers, and that we say on a case-by-case basis: ‘this company, they are in difficulty, it is facing a wall of debt, we see the problem coming, we are not going wait for the company to hit the wall. ‘”
A new consultation mechanism
“We will look at the situations, study it all together and see whether it is necessary to spread out its debt, or even to cancel its debt in part” promises Bruno Le Maire. “I am in favor of our looking at all these hypotheses and I will propose in a few weeks a consultation and conciliation system which should allow all the companies which are in the process of coming up against this wall of debt to Offer them a tailor-made solution. We need a tailor-made solution. ”
The number of business failures has remained low since the onset of the financial crisis, due to significant public aid. According to Altares, 7,406 insolvency proceedings were opened in the first quarter of 2021, a decrease of 32.1% compared to the first quarter of 2020. But now, 8 out of 10 judgments are direct liquidations.
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