The brewery Damm ensures that the two parties want to recover Pescanova. (Photo: 1997 CC BY-SA 3.0)

Damm insists in rescuing Pescanova

SPAIN
Wednesday, April 09, 2014, 02:20 (GMT + 9)

The brewery Damm does not desist in its attempts to recover the Galician multinational firm Pescanova and has accepted a reduction in pay off to make a payment of further EUR 300 million.

"Both sides want to recover the company," ensured Damm, a company that together with the fund Luxempart forms part of the creditor consortium.

After making this decision, the creditor banks of the fishing enterprise retake the contacts to revive the agreement and avoid its liquidation.

A week ago, the bank considers the negotiations with Damm are broken but this week the parties have spoken again at the request of the Council President, Juan Manuel Urgoiti.

Through a video conference, Damm explained that it is willing to assume most of banks claim: the recovery of a third of the debt that has trapped the fishing firm, that is to say, approximately EUR 1,000 million.

In the proposed agreement, Damm and Luxempart offered banks the possibility to recover EUR 700 million in two stages: EUR 400 million and EUR 300 million respectively. Meanwhile, the bank asked for a senior stage of EUR 500 million and a junior stage of EUR 500 million, the newspaper Faro de Vigo reported.

Faced with this request, from Damm they stressed that a firm like Pescanova with a debt of EUR 1,000 million was "unstable."

However, according to the Galician newspaper, the company would have now found a way to improve its plan, and even if the details have not been released, it is speculated that certain divestment might be considered for banks to recover further EUR 300 million.

After meeting the evaluation report of Deloitte (trustee) on the proposed agreement, Urgoiti convened banks -- represented by KPMG -- to propose financial improvements to the institutions.

Damm pointed out that "so far there has been no agreement on any particular point," but it assured that since both parties want to save the company, they want to "seek an agreement."

Moreover, Deloitte requested a moratorium for the repayment of the loan, which expires on 28 April, reported Economía Digital.

According to the available data, out of EUR 56 million that the group of seven banks (Novagalicia, Sabadell, Bankia, CaixaBank, Santander, Popular and BBVA) and the Xunta de Galicia itself injected Pescanova, and a large portion was returned but still EUR 18 million has to be paid.

Banking sources admitted that the hard core of the creditor banks is willing to accept a moratorium on payment.

"The viability of Pescanova group, a target that has been reported to be followed, is a laudable goal that this creditor’s meeting administration shares and whose achievement can be articulated, among other ways, with the corporate restructuring proposed through different structural changes outlined in the proposal," pointed out Deloitte, according to reports from the agency Europa Press.

Related article:

- Pescanova’s creditor banks end negotiations with Damm

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

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