Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The Commercial Court of Lille Métropole has accepted the offer of the Irish group Smyths Toys to take over the toy retailer PicwicToys. The Irish group's offer provides for the takeover of 41 of the 45 PicwicToys shops in France and 632 employees out of a total workforce of 736. Therefore, 130 employees will be dismissed. In addition, Smyths Toys is providing €9 million to pay off creditors and is financing the redundancy plan to the tune of €300,000. Finally, its proposal includes €50 million that will be paid within two weeks into the company's current account, in order to ensure the working capital requirements and investments necessary for the relaunch. The commercial court took into account the durability and economic soundness of the project, the number of jobs taken over and the repayment of creditors. The president of the court also added that Smyths Toys 'had already taken over shops of the Toys'R'Us group in Austria and Germany, at the time of their difficulties, and had successfully turned them around and put them back on the path to profitability'. PicWic had taken over the shops of the American brand Toys'R'US in France, creating the PicWicToys group in 2020. At that time, a restructuring event has been recorded in the ERM Database with 447 job cuts in 2020 (PicWicToys-2020-FR). However, the group suffered from the closures imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led the firm going into debt until it applied for receivership on 23 May 2022.
Eurofound (2022), Luderix International SAS - PicWicToys, Merger/Acquisition in France, factsheet number 107069, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/107069.
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