Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2011 and reports news from 17 February 2011, the date that “today” and “this morning” refer to; later developments for Nueva Rumasa, its companies and its investors are not covered. 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.
This morning, the newspapers and TV news served us Nueva Rumasa for breakfast, echoing reports of the seizures affecting the Ruiz-Mateos family, which has filed for pre-insolvency proceedings (preconcurso de acreedores) for Clesa, Garvey, Hotasa, Dhul, Trapa, Hibramer, Elgorriaga, Carcesa and Quesería Menorquina, aiming with this move to secure the companies’ viability and meet their commitments.
Ruiz-Mateos has promised to honour his obligations to the more than 5,000 private investors who put money in through subscriptions of equity units and promissory notes, implying that he is in advanced negotiations with an investor group that would take a minority stake in Nueva Rumasa and inject around 500 million euros of capital into the company.
Nueva Rumasa keeps pointing to the debt the State owes the company, worth 18,000 million euros, which it has still not collected, and the group insists that it is not finished yet.
What is clear is that, after the media’s silence about the group’s financial situation and today’s “chorus” of news, the investors who subscribed to the promissory notes are frightened, and I don’t think the new investor will decide, as things stand today, to invest in Nueva Rumasa as a way of earning a return on its money.
I would also point out that Nueva Rumasa has not received any state support to ease the situation of the group, which has more than 8,000 employees and bank debt of 700 million euros, against total assets of 6,000 million euros.
Featured image: El Pantera, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
