“Closed today”. On the French map of Courtepaille restaurants, the same litany is scattered along the vacation route. With only 55 restaurants open out of 187 detainees (excluding franchises), the favorite chain of the presidential couple Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron is struggling to recover from the crisis due to Covid-19. From a union source, she even declared herself on Tuesday, July 21 in suspension of payments with the court of Evry, in order to trigger the opening of judicial reorganization proceedings. A hearing to this effect is scheduled for July 27. This approach « technique », according to a good connoisseur of the case, aims to facilitate a restructuring of Courtepaille, before its takeover.
Because, despite its difficulties, the sign born in 1961, in Burgundy, at the edge of the national 6, arouses the appetite. According to several sources, four suitors have expressed their interest in the call for tenders organized by the Lazard bank on behalf of ICG, the British fund that owns Courtepaille.
The bulimic Bertrand group, number one French restaurant (Hippopotamus, Bert’s, Brasserie Lipp, La Coupole …) would be in the best position, ahead of Butler Industries, the holding company of the specialist in troubled companies, Walter Butler (owner of Paradis Latin and former shareholder in brasseries Flo), the investment fund Naxicap, shareholder in the family brand La Boucherie, and finally Buffalo Grill, a major competitor of Courtepaille.
Courtepaille has already gone through severe turbulence in recent years
The court will choose the buyer according to the number of sites taken over, the planned amount of investments and the commitments made in terms of employment. The group has around 2,700 employees.
Courtepaille has already gone through severe turbulence in recent years. First a creditor, ICG took control of the brand in 2015, at the end of a governance crisis, by converting the debt it held into capital. He had thus ousted another fund, Fondations Capital, which had acquired 53% of Courtepaille in 2011 for 245 million euros, as part of a leveraged buy out (LBO) operation.
Against the backdrop of already disappointing 2019 results, according to a source, the king of grills had requested a loan guaranteed by the State (PGE) but did not obtain it, at this stage. Bercy’s policy is to put pressure on companies whose difficulties had started long before the Covid-19 epidemic to take structural measures, recapitalization or even disposal, before receiving taxpayer money. The Conforama furniture chain thus only won an EMP after having secured a backing with its competitor Goal.
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