Michel Ohayon will place his Galeries Lafayette stores in receivership
Bordeaux businessman Michel Ohayon will place the 26 Galeries Lafayette stores he controls in France in receivership “to protect them from any attack”, he announced in an interview with the Sud Ouest newspaper published on Friday evening. .
“Their situation is healthy”, assured the entrepreneur whose business empire is in turmoil, with the liquidation of the Camaieu brand in September and the placement in receivership of the Go Sport group in January.
On Tuesday, walkouts were observed by employees among the twenty or so Galeries Lafayette department stores, which employ around 750 people.
This week, the Bordeaux Commercial Court has already placed in receivership, at its request, the main holding company of Michel Ohayon, Financière immobilière bordelaise (FIB), a company with which he has built a vast commercial and hotel empire currently in difficulty. .
Coming out of silence for the first time since the start of the crisis, which earned him numerous criticisms, Michel Ohayon took up his own defense in the columns of the newspaper.
“Since the failure (of his takeover of Camaieu in 2018, editor’s note), I have heard everything about me but no, I am not a jackal of the commercial courts!”, Declares the businessman, ensuring to have injected “2.5 times more” money into the company than promised, and “tried everything to save jobs” – more than 2,000 employees remained on the floor in the end.
The placement in receivership of the FIB must make it possible “to continue the activity” and “to prepare the best conditions for the reimbursement of creditors and companies”, continued Mr. Ohayon, whose strategy aims to “reduce the scope of the company”. , by selling assets, to allow “a very strong deleveraging”.
“FIB is solid, we have assets that are among the most beautiful in France,” he said.
Asked about the future of Go Sport, Michel Ohayon, on the other hand, was pessimistic about the outcome of the receivership proceedings opened by the Grenoble commercial court, believing that the brand would be “sold before”.
“While the company was going to make its first profits in 17 years in 2023, the employees did not trust the managers and asked that the company be placed under court protection”, lamented the businessman for who this “will cause social damage and lead to the same Gap movement” when “a backup would have been enough.”