Leonardo persuades lenders to approve its reorganisation plan

Leonardo, the biggest Romanian footwear retailer, with over 2,000 employees, has managed to convince its 380 creditors, among which five banks, to approve the plan for the reorganisation of the store network, a first step to avoiding bankruptcy.

The Oradea-based retailer, controlled by businessman Florin Panea, is thus the second major Romanian company getting the go-ahead for its reorganisation plan, after Flanco, a year after entering insolvency in the wake of 100m-euro debts.
Meanwhile, Leonardo has shut down over 60 stores and made over 1,000 employees redundant, but has managed to “resize costs, cutting salary, rent expenses and other one-off expenditures,” according to Radu Lotrean, managing partner of Casa de Insolvență Transilvania SPRL, in charge with the legal reorganisation of the retailer.
According to the list of creditors, five banks have a little above 20m euros (86.4m RON) to recoup, with BRD-Group Societe Generale as the biggest creditor by far, with 9.3 million euros (39.2 million RON) to get back from Leonardo.