Cod produced in Pescanova. (Photo: Pescanova)

Pescanova’s refounding process starts

SPAIN
Wednesday, July 02, 2014, 23:10 (GMT + 9)

With the approval of the accounts for 2011, 2012 and 2013, the Galician multinational firm Pescanova leaves behind the creditors meeting and can think of its revival as Nueva Pescanova.

Pescanova’s shareholders' meeting approved with 81.93 per cent of votes in favour and 13.9 per cent against the accounts of the company for the years 2011 (after being reformulated), 2012 and 2013.

With 73.38 per cent of representation, it also supported the reduction of the board of the company to four members, the newspaper Faro de Vigo reported.

The shareholders’ ordinary and extraordinary general meeting rejected the request of Cartesian and the Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders of Listed Companies (AEMEC) of a fifth director. Thus, the board shall consist of Fernando Herce, Alejandro Legarda, Cesar Mata and Diego Fontan, Faro de Vigo informed.

To Herce, the approval of the accounts means "ending a dark chapter" in the history of the fishing enterprise.

The reformulated accounts of the multinational firm for 2011 materialize the loss of EUR 260 million and an equity gap of EUR 791 million.

Meanwhile, 2012 accounts show a negative net worth of EUR 1,522 million, and those for 2013 include losses of EUR 719 million and an equity gap of EUR 2,237 million.

The consultant agency that audited the accounts was BDO. The choice of this firm was challenged by a shareholder, as in the first phase it had audited the accounts that had been falsified.

In its defense, a spokesperson for BDO argued that they had received documentation of "false sales and purchases, shell companies, triangular partnerships and everything was distorted".

"The auditor was one of those deceived, just as the shareholders or the banks because in those accounts there was a fictional part," he stressed.

Throughout the meeting, the board also discussed the investment in the aquaculture plant in Mira (Portugal).

Insolvency administrators confirmed that the plant operates at 50 per cent capacity, so it would require "a significant injection of capital" to be reactivated, the newspaper El Pais reported.

The aquaculture facility faces a significant debt, mostly with Portuguese financial institutions with which they are negotiating.

In 2013 Pescanova’s sales reached a total of EUR 1,063 million, representing a decrease of 21 per cent over the previous year.

Related article:

- Court ends Pescanova’s creditors’ meeting

By Analia Murias
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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