BL Premium reports more than 75% of Edcon's creditors approved the company’s business rescue plan at a meeting on Monday. Some creditors who tried to stop the process were successfully warded off.
The inability to trade due to the Covid-19 lockdown pushed the retailer, which was in the midst of a bailout plan funded by the Public Investment Corporation, landlords and other creditors, into the business rescue process. Monday's meeting was attended by creditors, who are owed a total of R6.7bn, and representatives of workers who had received retrenchment letters. The approval of the business rescue plan, which proposes an accelerated sale process, allows the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) Piers Marsden and Lance Schapiro to sell the parts of the business that are of interest to bidders. They will then close any stores or brands that are not sold by the end of August. Almost R600m has been set aside for staff retrenchments, though the BRPs hope to save a “significant” number of almost 17,300 employees’ jobs. Kingsgate clothing company, which said it was owed R24m, and clothing manufacturer Clematis failed in a legal bid to interdict Monday’s meeting. It was the second court action faced by Edcon after Pan African Shopfitters opposed the business rescue process last week.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Katharine Child at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
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