The negotiation has been long and painful. After more than two months of tensions between Conforama and Purpose, the two brands will be combined. According to several sources close to the matter, “the discussions are progressing very well” and will, except rebounding last-minute, lead to an agreement. This Wednesday, the trade unions of Conforama meet for the second time the representatives of the shareholders of Aim. They had already talked with Bertrand Lefort last Friday. The vice-president of the austrian group Lutz is well known as he has worked over fifteen years in Conforama.
“Conforama France confirms consider a backing Mobilux, the shareholder’s Purpose” provides the direction to BFM Business, while specifying that”no firm commitment has been signed, and discussions are continuing”. Last Friday, Conforama has exposed its employees to the project of recovery is proposed and negotiated with Purpose. that will be formally presented on Tuesday 23 June during the economic and social committee (ex-central committee of company) of Conforama. The signing of the transaction is expected by the end of July and a completion of the recovery at the end of August.
An alliance to avoid bankruptcy
Aim plans to resume Conforama, its 8,000 employees and its 165 stores in France. It is committed to pay the 150 million euros of invoices from suppliers, a third of whom are French. Aim is also committed to finance the plan of departure of 1,900 employees announced in the past year, the cost of which reached 116 million euros. To finance the operation, he is awarded a loan of 322 million euros guaranteed by the State that the bank BNP Paribas refused to grant Conforama alone. The shareholders of Aim also plan to inject 200 million euros to rebalance the balance sheet of the sign.
And Conforama will not be merged, apart from the functions of management, financial and legal, as well as purchases to save on the prices of suppliers. On this point, Aim has multiplied the promises to the sector of furnishings, initially opposed to the union of two of its biggest customers. “Aim is committed to ensure order volumes, over three years to reassure the suppliers who prefer the alliance rather than take the risk of Conforama fail,” explains a representative of the industry.
Haro on the shareholders of Conforama
Because the risk of had become great these past few weeks. While the banks refused to lend, despite a guarantee from the State, the shareholders of Conforama refused also to bail out the sign. An arm of iron very hard was held for a month between the teams of the restructuring of the ministry of Economy (interministerial Committee for industrial restructuring or Ciri) and the shareholders of Conforama. These nine investment funds, including Davidson Kempner, Silver Point, Centerbridge, Farrallon – are the creditors who took control, two years ago, of Steinhoff, the parent company of Conforama.
All stakeholders in the folder “if indignaient the behavior of these funds,” said a protagonist, who transferred the “jewels of Conforama” -the real estate and the brand – in a special purpose company (trust) to keep in the event of bankruptcy. One tactical extreme to which the teams of Bercy, “angry”, supported by a legal administrator, responded that a “liquidation of Conforama would not have spared anyone and would not have left the funds to keep the walls and the brand,” adds this source.
Dismantling of Conforama
After several weeks of tension, an agreement has been reached, in which the shareholders of Conforama found it very widely. Even if they concede to the abandonment of claims, they retain in their bosom the subsidiaries of Spanish and swiss Conforama that they sell out quickly. The two chips of the group that are worth, according to our information, more than 400 million euros.
The group Conforama will be dismantled. A process that its shareholders had already started before the crisis. At the beginning of march, they were on the point of selling the Spanish branch of Conforama for € 220 million to the fund OP Capita. A sale that has flipped over during the confinement as she had already raised a controversy in internal as one of the leaders of this fund is none other than Frank Maassen, the former boss of the Goal between 2013 and 2018.
According to internal sources, a buyer has already been found for the swiss subsidiary. Nearly ten years after its sale by PPR (formerly Kering) to Steinhoff, Conforama starts a new cycle, which has refocused on France.
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