The offer from the investment group C2 Private Capital presented before the commercial court to resume the activity of the centenary Marie Claire textile factory in Vilafranca, closed since June, includes the entire purchase of the production unit based in this town of 2,200 inhabitants in the interior Castellón but not the assumption of the debt that the company maintains.
An amount of 38 million euros, 24 of which are owed to the Valencian Institute of Finance (IVAF).
This has been confirmed by a representative of the Madrid fund in the meeting held with the Marie Claire works council.
A meeting in which the investment group exhibited its economic solvency and showed its willingness to “invest in the facilities to reactivate production” but made it clear that it will not take charge of the debt.
He also expressed his desire to “recover the people from the ERTE and even some of the dismissed employees for strategic areas of the factory,” UGT has indicated.
The representative of the investment group also mentioned the hiring of a textile management team to face the activity again, given that the bulk of the companies that comprise it are linked to the agri-food sector.
At this moment in Marie Claire there are a hundred employees, 72 in the factory and thirty in external offices, covered by an ERTE that ends this March and whose extension will be debated in an assembly next Wednesday.
“We made it clear that to restart the company, money is needed and they are clear about that, because the machines have been stopped for almost a year, but they have not specified to us how it will be invested or how much, although they have expressed their interest in acquiring the production.” , indicate the same sources.
The sights are now set on April 8.
It is the date of the commercial court that handles the bankruptcy of the textile company to give the green light or not to the purchase offer.
A period in which new offers can be submitted.
“From C2 Private Capital they have told us that until then they will not do anything else,” they add from UGT.
For its part, the bankruptcy administrator continues negotiating with the IVAF and the rest of the creditors "to see if it is possible to buy the productive unit without assuming the debt."
C2 Private Capital is a Spanish fund based in Madrid with multiple investments in different sectors, from construction to the agri-food sector or the most recent field of textiles.
Its offer, on which it has been advised by the Martín Molina law firm and economists, extends the purchase to the entire production plant, including workers, machinery, facilities and brand.
Marie Claire workers praise that this investment group's offer has been the only purchase offer that has followed the formal channels: "presenting it before the commercial court", of all those that have revolved around the textile industry in recent months.
“The important thing is that they have a project not only to start, but to continue,” the employees point out.
They continue to be suspicious "because of everything that has happened, and because it seems that in this mechanism any piece that jumps can blow everything up...", they indicate.
But at the same time they show “excitement” and “hope” that this purchase will go ahead.
“It is the first time that an interested investor arrives with money and with a firm proposal formalized as he should.”
Currently the factory remains closed and with zero activity.
Only security personnel remain there for surveillance work, and between three and four employees in charge of issuing orders already prepared in the warehouse.
Marie Claire stopped machines last June after 116 years of history.
190 employees of the company's almost 300 employees were laid off.