Merkala women’s footwear company with 200 stores in Spain and owned by OpCapitaa British private equity fund specialized in the retail sector, sits down with the bank to rearrange its debt pile. The Spanish company that has an extensive presence in Barcelona has placed itself in the hands of Kroll to negotiate with different financial entities a new payment schedule and conditions, according to different sources consulted by ‘elEconomista.es’.
The same voices add that the Spanish bank works jointly with EY. The forecast is that an agreement will be reached in the early stages of 2025, given the good progress in the negotiations to organize the tranche of the committed liabilities.which amounts to 30 million euros. This medium tried to contact Merkal, but it was impossible to obtain her version at the close of this article.
The company is trying to weather the storm after OpCapita gave the company a boost in the last year through a capital injection that aimed to “strengthen the company’s financial capacity,” according to the latest report. available in the Commercial Registry.
Apart from this measure, andThe owner implemented a reduction of more than two million euros in the investments planned for the following year and signed a line of credit to “strengthen its financial capacity and its subsidiaries.”. The British fund has been the main shareholder of the chain since 2017, when it was acquired from the French Vivarte SAS through its OpCapita Consumer Opportunities Fund II vehicle.
The same accounts show that the company directed by Luis González Herrero, formerly of Springfield, achieved 121 million sales in 2023the majority located in the north of Spain. The figure represents a slight improvement compared to the previous year (117 million euros), although it is far from the business that Merkal enjoyed when it was acquired by Op Capita. The company, however, entered into losses in the aforementioned year and recorded a negative operating result.
The company attributes this result to logistics costs, on the one hand, and energy costs, on the other. Regarding the first, it states that they are derived from the increase in container costs, while in the second, it attributes the poor performance to the higher electricity prices in the first half of 2023.
By 2024, the company expected not to have these impacts, which exceeded one million euros, and a cost saving due to the application of corrective measures in the structure. The third aspect that invites optimism is the improvement in activity derived from the market trend towards comfort. in which the company has invested heavily.
#Merkal #Capita #fund #sits #bank #refinance #million
