Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2011 and reports events as they stood then, including its downward-spiral outlook for the group. Clesa and other Nueva Rumasa companies filed for insolvency later in 2011, and members of the Ruiz-Mateos family later faced criminal proceedings. Nueva Rumasa entered insolvency proceedings in 2011; many small investors in its promissory notes and capital increases were not repaid, and members of the Ruiz-Mateos family later faced fraud charges.
More seizure news for Nueva Rumasa (Clesa). Lately, everything we hear about Nueva Rumasa (and not through the traditional media) is bad news for the Ruiz-Mateos family’s company. Last month we reported on the preventive seizure of seven properties requested by Inversiones Insulares Radó, and now this new story reaches us:
Madrid Court of First Instance No. 67 has ordered the seizure of movable and immovable assets of Clesa (Nueva Rumasa), and of a bank account into which its distributors pay, up to an amount of 36 million euros.
According to the newspaper CincoDías:
Nueva Rumasa renegotiates its debt with Royal Bank of Scotland to avoid seizure
Nueva Rumasa is in the process of renegotiating a mortgage loan with Royal Bank of Scotland, after the bank filed a claim for non-payment that led to a court order to seize Clesa’s assets.
The seizure order was later suspended by a court ruling because of the objection raised by the dairy company owned by the Ruiz-Mateos family, which “disagrees with the plaintiff’s claims”, Nueva Rumasa said in a statement.
According to sources close to the company, it concerns a mortgage loan on a Clesa property worth close to 70 million euros, “far more than the amount claimed” by the bank. Nueva Rumasa said the dispute is awaiting a court decision and concerns the obligation to pay an amount that “is currently being refinanced and negotiated” with the bank.
“Should the judgment result in any payment obligation for Clesa, the company will comply with its terms scrupulously and promptly, as could not be otherwise,” the Ruiz-Mateos family’s company stressed.
With all this news, the need for cash to meet its payments and its heavy reliance on private capital increases for funding, we may already be looking at a downward spiral for Nueva Rumasa, and it’s hard to imagine a happy ending to it.
The most surprising thing is that the media (television and the national press) aren’t reporting on Nueva Rumasa’s situation, when I’d say a company with more than 8,000 workers is news.
Featured image: María Sacristán, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
