Journal of
Corporate
Renewal
Sept
2016
HAPPENINGS
Northwest Chapter
2016
TMA NORTHWEST
CROSS BORDER CONFERENCE
Fairmont Chateau Whistler, British Columbia
group of seven lenders to appoint
Freshfields to work on its behalf to
prevent Pescanova's liquidation.
The Freshfields team, after establishing
that a significant portion of the debt
had recourse to the Spanish parent
company and 12 of its Spanish
operating subsidiaries, decided on an
unprecedented group restructuring
within the framework of Spanish
insolvency proceedings. A composition
agreement and rescheduling of debt
was approved for the parent company
and each of its Spanish subsidiaries,
which were then merged into the
parent company to consolidate
the debt. The business was then
segregated to create a new company,
Nueva Pescanova, which received
the assets and the restructured debt.
A capital increase followed to give
creditors access to a large percentage of
the share capital of the new company.
The successful—and groundbreaking—
turnaround ensured that compulsory
layoffs were largely avoided and salaries
were paid. The company is now a
viable business and well-positioned to
be profitable again in the near future.
The small company case involved
private investor Rcapital's transformation
of the retail proposition of the Rolling
Luggage business in just 12 months.
The Rolling Luggage brand was
part of the Tie Rack group, which
Rcapital acquired in September 2013,
following significant losses by the
company over a number of years.
Rcapital identified an opportunity to
untangle Rolling Luggage, which had
continued to operate successfully from
airports globally, from the terminally
distressed Tie Rack group. The
turnaround saw a new management
team introduced, costs significantly
reduced, and an overhaul of the retail
estate completed, leading to a seven-year lease deal with Heathrow Airport in
late 2014. Following a period of intense
operational and financial restructuring,
Rolling Luggage was sold in February
2015 to Samsonite, the world's largest
luggage brand, for 15. 7 million pounds. J
SEPT 22-24
