Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2011, as a news item. Nueva Rumasa filed for insolvency only weeks later, in February 2011, and Ruiz-Mateos and his family were later prosecuted over the group’s collapse, so the hopeful closing line about the group pulling through reads very differently today.
José María Ruiz-Mateos, founder of Nueva Rumasa, has travelled to Italy to meet several banks and investment fund managers that are looking both for financing deals and for possible stakes in some of the group’s companies.
Nueva Rumasa held a meeting with Marina Berlusconi, chair of Fininvest and daughter of Silvio Berlusconi.
According to José María Ruiz-Mateos, the meeting was productive, and the two sides are likely to reach agreements that would bring a capital injection for Nueva Rumasa and new business opportunities between the two companies.
The news comes a week after Nueva Rumasa announced an ERE (a collective redundancy procedure under Spanish labour law) at some of its group companies. Meanwhile, some Nueva Rumasa workers continue to complain about late payment of their wages.
For the sake of more than 8,000 jobs, let’s hope Nueva Rumasa pulls through thanks to this new partnership and source of financing.
Featured image: Art y Letras Hispanas, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
