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.
Marinopoulos, one of the largest supermarket chains in Greece, filed for bankruptcy and as such, 10,800 employees were threatened with redundancy. According to Greek news, the supermarket filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, 28 June 2016 due to overwhelming debts, and stated that the sale of their entire asset base would only cover 21.7% of their outstanding debt. Their entire workforce, some 13,000 employees have subsequently been laid off.
Marinopoulos opened in Athens as a small pharmacy in 1893 with successive generations of children and grandchildren expending the business with major international partnerships with global giants like France’s Fnac and Carrefour and Seattle-based Starbucks. Carrefour Marinopoulos, created in 1999, was a 50-50 joint venture between the Greek Marinopoulos Group and the French Carrefour Group and was a robust business until 2012 when Carrefour decided to withdraw due to the Greek crisis leading to a decline in the chain’s market shares.
UPDATE 16/01/2017 Athens Court of First Instance has issued (16 January 2017) a decision approving a merger plan for Marinopoulos with Sklavenitis Group. The new company will be owned and managed by the latter. According to a previously negotiated deal between the two companies, 14 February 2017 is the final date for completing it. Although there are no official announcements on the preservation of the 13,000 positions it is believed that every effort will be made to preserve all jobs in the new company.
Eurofound (2016), Marinopoulos, Merger/Acquisition in Greece, factsheet number 87998, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/87998.
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