The directors of Merchandise, the company that owns the chain of low-cost stores Justo & Bueno, announced that before May 10 the Chinese fund Joining Futures Capital International Limited (JFC) will complete the transfer of the resources resulting from the operation that led them to take control of the firm.
This was made known through a statement this Friday, after the name of the new owner of the low-cost store chain that arrived in Colombia six years ago (2016) was leaked, but after the financial crisis derived from the coronavirus pandemic had to resort to a restructuring process, which was admitted in mid-January by the Superintendency of Companies.
(Context: Fair & Good: Chinese fund Joining Futures Capital is its new owner)
Despite the fact that the current directors of Justo & Bueno communicated to their collaborators and suppliers the name of the new shareholder and his career as a global investor in different sectors, they did not provide more details of the operation, that is, neither what percentage they acquired nor the amount of the resources that would enter the organization as a result of the transaction.
The search for a capitalist partner was one of the alternatives proposed by the organization to overcome its crisis, which left it, at the time, with liabilities in the order of 1.5 billion pesos.
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Michel Olmi, executive president of Merchandise, in an interview with EL TIEMPO earlier this year, He stated that with the admission to the business reorganization process under Law 1116, and the payment agreements with creditors, Justo & Bueno was once again attractive to investors.
And he also commented that they had already reached an agreement with one, without revealing his name, so that he would leave the shareholding structure of the company, but that he would continue to lead it in its administrative part.
Although Mercadería has a new owner, it will continue to operate as it has done until now, maintaining the management team that has been at the forefront since the beginning of operations.
“Although Merchandise has a new owner, it will continue to operate as it has done so far, maintaining the management team that has been at the forefront since the beginning of operations,” the directives informed their suppliers and collaborators through a letter dated April 20, 2022.
In this communication they also made it clear that all debts (salaries and other obligations) will be assumed by Chinese investors (JFC), “from the admission of the company in the business reorganization on January 18 to April 30 of the current year , as well as the other future commitments”, they indicated.
Olmi also told this publishing house, at the time, that they hoped to get out of this crisis soon supported by the new partner and specified that the projections they had made gave them that at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023 they would reach a point of equilibrium.
According to figures from the organization, they currently have 1,000 stores operating out of the more than 1,300 they once had in a large part of Colombian territory.