STA, 30 December 2019 - Three companies that form the heavily indebted retail group Tuš have entered preventive financial restructuring, show filings with the Agency for Public Legal Services (AJPES) released on Monday.
The restructuring for the holding company Tuš Holding, its retail arm Engrotuš and its real estate arm Tuš Nepremičnine was initiated by the Celje District Court at the request of the companies themselves.
Tuš said the new procedure had been initiated with the support of a majority of financial creditors since the existing master restructuring agreement, which was signed in early 2016, will soon expire.
"The purpose of the procedure is to give Tuš group companies a sustainable equity structure in the long term and provide financial stability," the company said in a press release.
Preventive restructuring is a special procedure in insolvency law that may be invoked when a company is not yet insolvent but might become insolvent. Even if it fails, the procedure does not necessarily mean the company will enter bankruptcy.
The Tuš group, which remains in ownership of founder Mirko Tuš, has been working through its mountain of debt for several years and banks, which extended loans worth roughly EUR 300 million, have recently started to sell their claims to funds specialising in distressed assets.
Media reports suggest that roughly a third of claims to Tuš is held by EXP Investments Securitisation from Luxembourg and Slovenian asset manager Alfi, which are in the process of buying another 20% or so of the claims.
British fund Anacap Financial Partners holds under a tenth of the claims and Abanka about 21%.
Engrotuš, the core company in the group, reported net revenue of EUR 480.4 million for 2018, roughly on par with the year before. Net profit was down 71% to EUR 1.7 million.
