Leonardo persuades lenders to approve its reorganisation plan
Leonardo, the biggest Romanian footwear retailer, with over 2,000 employees, has managed to convince its 380 creditors, among which five banks, to approve the plan for the reorganisation of the store network, a first step to avoiding bankruptcy.
The Oradea-based retailer, controlled by businessman Florin
Panea, is thus the second major Romanian company getting the
go-ahead for its reorganisation plan, after Flanco, a year after
entering insolvency in the wake of 100m-euro debts.
Meanwhile, Leonardo has shut down over 60 stores and made over
1,000 employees redundant, but has managed to "resize costs,
cutting salary, rent expenses and other one-off expenditures,"
according to Radu Lotrean, managing partner of Casa de Insolvenţă
Transilvania SPRL, in charge with the legal reorganisation of the
retailer.
According to the list of creditors, five banks have a little above
20m euros (86.4m RON) to recoup, with BRD-Group Societe Generale as
the biggest creditor by far, with 9.3 million euros (39.2 million
RON) to get back from Leonardo.