Offer from within the company
Nathalie Balla and Eric Courteille have confirmed,
during a union meeting in Roubaix, that they have made a joint offer for La
Redoute on Saturday, but did not mention how much they offered for the ailing
post order giant.
Up until this point, investment funds
HIG Capital and OpCapita have made a bid for La Redoute, alongside real estate
group Altarea Cogedim. “We have heard that Nathalia Balla’s restructuring
plans are not as dramatic as and show more social restraint than the plans the
other candidates have shown”, the labour unions sounded relatively hopeful
after the meeting.
A decision before Christmas?
Those same unions think that Kering
will make a decision before the Christmas holiday, even though the French
luxury concern has refused to confirm that timeframe. Kering, former PPR, had
put La Redoute up for sale quite some time ago, when it decided to purely focus
on luxury and sports (Gucci, Yves Saint-Laurent, Puma and other brands). Each
and every retail chain it owned has subsequently been sold.
This final retail subsidiary has been dragging on for quite some time now,
mostly because La Redoute is losing money. Some insiders claim that Kering has spent more than 400 million euro
on the company since 2008, needing at least another 300 million
euro to cover the losses and to pay for the reorganization. La Redoute had
announced at the end of October that 700 of its 3,300 employees had to leave
the company.
(Translated by Gary Peeters)
