May 6, 2024
Today at
17:39
The creditors of Zoute Grand Prix almost all agree to the recovery plan for the company behind the famous classic car race. The court approved the plan. This clears the way for the rescue by the corporate doctor CIM Capital.
At the beginning of this year, De Tijd wrote that a major rescue operation was in the pipeline at Zoute Grand Prix, which was in financial dire straits. The Antwerp group CIM Capital, which invests in companies in difficulty, was looking at the takeover of the company behind the fashionable car event.
In the spring, CIM Capital submitted a recovery plan. This provided for a cancellation of 60 percent of the 4.5 million in debt and a repayment of the remaining 40 percent within three months. The plan had to be approved by at least half of the creditors, who also represented at least half of the total debt. That is now behind us: 62 of the 64 creditors, who represented almost the entire debt (4.5 million euros), agreed to the recovery plan.
Zoute Grand Prix’s largest creditor was the Flemish Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Vlaio, 1 million euros). Other major creditors were the catering company J&M (0.5 million), Georges Veldeman (founder of the tent company of the same name, 0.4 million) and Belfius (0.2 million euros). Zoute Grand Prix also had debts to the champagne house Möet Hennessy (0.2 million euros) and to Sanglier des Ardennes (Marc Coucke/Wout Bru, 13,000 euros).
If there is no appeal against the approval of the plan by the court of Bruges, and that chance is extremely small, Zoute Grand Prix will receive a capital injection and it will end up in the hands of CIM Capital.
CIM is a specialist in turnarounds. It is on board, among others, the sewing and fashion chain Veritas, the travel organization Neckermann and the manufacturer of industrial washing machines Lapauw. It was also in the running for the takeover of the trailer division of bus builder Van Hool.
