The Mechelen corporate court rejects Mega World’s (ex-Blokker) application for judicial reorganization. The court appoints 2 provisional administrators.
–
The two provisional administrators are given authority to manage Mega World and can make any decisions that arise. In practice, they are expected to file a summons against the company.
The court rejected the application for judicial reorganization because the necessary accounting documents required for such an application may be missing. Mega World’s plans weren’t very credible. They provided for a doubling of turnover in the short term. With the lockdown, that is completely unrealistic. The court also found that there was a question of deception because the certificate in which the auditor rejected the annual accounts was missing.
The trade union ACV Puls had requested the appointment of provisional administrators. However, the court appoints them ex officio. That’s an indication that the court feared that Mega World was still in danger of doing crazy things in the last straight line. ACV Puls had previously also submitted a file to the public prosecutor’s office regarding possible fraud at Mega World.
The court entrusts the task to Thierry Lammar and Kristin Van Hocht. Approximately 670 people work at Mega World. The former Blokker has 123 stores. 15 of them (slightly more than initially thought) are owned by Retail Estates. This landlord had asked the corporate court to reject the petition regarding judicial reorganization. Landlord Wereldhave Belgium had also requested the rejection. Mega World can still appeal, but the question is whether that will do much.
– .
