During the past week have shown how acute the crisis in the company is. Tax liabilities amount to over eleven million, the employees received no salaries on Monday, the company could not pay the advance at the time of printing, which led to the only come out in digital form since last Tuesday, the landlord has demanded that the Metro be expelled from their redaktionslokaler, the distribution companies have a long string of unpaid debts and so on.
the Total is Metro required 59 million, and then the Bailiff started to measure out the assets by seizing the company’s bank accounts have, in principle, all activities had been frozen. The strange thing is rather that it took so many days before Metro filed its rekonstruktionsansökan. It is only when it is inside a process of sorting out the financial situation can get started. When the district court n granted a reconstruction also needs the Bailiff to stop their foreclosure.
In its application the company said that ”in the day set up their payments”. So it was in principle already some time ago, and with that the Bailiff had access to the company’s bank accounts. For Metro to be able to resume their activities and distribute a printed journal again, it is required that the resulting reconstruction allows the assessment it can go to get the business on its feet through an arrangement with creditors.
however, This is a process that is expected to take at least three to six months: the first creditors ‘ meeting shall be held only on april 15. In the meantime, reconstruction is in progress must not Metro taking on new liabilities. On the other hand, employees that get paid by the state wage guarantee system.
the 59 million is not a huge amount of debt in a company reorganisation. When Göteborgs-Posten and Stampen applied for reconstruction in 2016, they had liabilities of over one billion, of which € 250 million in accounts payable. If reconstruction is to succeed, however, require two things: firstly, that the creditors agree to the write-down of liabilities, which is not at all obvious, first, that the owners can shoot, or get new capital, in order to show that the business can be profitable in the long run.
It is also in the highest degree uncertain: the things the principal owner, Christen Ager-Hanssen talked about with endagsutgivning and a clearer digital investment is hardly something that would ensure a balanced economy.
in Addition, is right now Ager-Hanssen, himself perhaps the company’s biggest problem: his behaviour does not inspire confidence in any counterparty, which significantly increases the risk that a reconstruction is deemed hopeless. Then it will be rather than bankruptcy, to be able to get in at least a part of the values that can be allocated to the priority creditors.
