Government considered buying 50 million HEMA shares last year | NOW

Last year, the Dutch government considered becoming a co-shareholder in HEMA for fifty million euros to save the ailing company, reports NRC on the basis of documents received by the newspaper invoking the Government Information (Public Access) Act (Wob). In that case, HEMA would partly become a state-owned company.

The scenario was ready in case HEMA failed to reach an agreement with creditors and there was no other option to save the company.

Due to a shortage of money, the retail chain threatened to go bankrupt last year. On June 15, 2020, HEMA had to repay a loan of fifty million euros to creditors.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs initially considered extending the corona support measure for the department store, so that HEMA could borrow hundreds of millions with a state guarantee. This option was blocked by the European Commission because HEMA was already in trouble before December 31, 2019, before the outbreak of the pandemic.

Not vital to economics

Although HEMA is not of vital importance to the Dutch economy, and government intervention is therefore difficult to justify, the ministry feared political and social consequences if the company could not be saved. With fifteen thousand jobs, HEMA was important for employment. The street scene and the “historical and sentimental value” of HEMA also counted.

The government plan to become a co-shareholder in HEMA was blocked by Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Finance). According to him, it would be more beneficial if the solution came from the market. Ultimately, the retail chain was taken over by the creditors. On December 17, 2020, HEMA was definitively taken over by the owners of Jumbo, the Van Eerd family, and investment company Parcom.

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