Jambon believes in restarting Van Hool’s industrial activity

The Flemish government is prepared to support a restart of industrial activity at the Van Hool site in Koningshook. Prime Minister Jan Jambon stated this on Sunday in De Zevende Dag.

In the event of a restart or flash bankruptcy, the aim is a partial or complete takeover of the activities or assets by an industrial player, such as the factory halls or the still profitable trailer division. The advantage of only taking action after the bankruptcy is that the debt burden of 400 million disappears and tens of millions are not needed for termination compensation.

The four major banks, which are Van Hool’s largest creditors with 200 million euros, appeared unwilling on Friday to pump in fresh money or to waive their loans to the bus builder or convert them into capital. This made the rescue plan of crisis manager Marc Zwaaneveld – with downsizing in Flanders and the loss of 1,100 jobs – definitively hopeless. Because the cash supply runs out at the end of March, bankruptcy is inevitable.

Flanders is exposed to bankruptcy for 30 million euros through bank guarantees. A works council is scheduled for Monday at the bus builder. ‘Maybe’ will be the end of the story for NV Van Hool, according to Jambon, but not for the industrial activity on the site. ‘A number of private partners have noticed the very good workforce and the environment.’

The Flemish government is prepared to support a restart, but Jambon first wants to see which serious parties are presenting themselves and whether they need support at all. According to the Flemish government leader, a Chinese investor is ‘of course not the desirable scenario’. He prefers a Flemish, and by extension, a European company.

A restart means that not all 4,100 Van Hool employees – including 2,500 in Flanders – will be without a job. If the assets and associated personnel are taken over, job losses can be limited. The Flemish government has heard that it is possible that it will give the acquirer a financial boost, such as the purchase of buses. In that scenario, the employees who end up on the street will not receive severance pay, but a maximum of 30,500 euros from a government fund.

Three industrial players are interested in taking over business units, including two foreign ones and the West Flemish serial entrepreneur Guido Dumarey. According to our information, the speculations about a Chinese company or the German bus manufacturer MAN are incorrect.

The two foreign candidates seem to have the best chance, because their vision is closest to Zwaaneveld’s reorganization plan. Only the development of vehicles and the trailer division remained in Flanders, Van Hool stopped producing city buses and moved the production of niche coaches to North Macedonia. Dumarey wants to keep bus production in Flanders as much as possible, where labor costs are much higher than in North Macedonia.