REACTION
The court of commerce of Lille pronounced on Wednesday the judicial liquidation without continuation of activity of the manufacturer of cabins of construction machinery Tim, which employs 304 people in Quaëdypre in the North, no offer of recovery having been formulated.
The company, which was experiencing serious financial difficulties, had been placed in bankruptcy at the end of August. It had already escaped liquidation for the first time in July 2017, before it was taken over by the German construction machinery company Atlas GMBH, controlled by the Bulgarian businessman Fil Filipov.
Offer withdrawn
The company Sépode, based in Normandy, had a time considered a recovery of the site and the activity, as well as 40 employees, but had finally withdrawn its offer.
In particular, Tim's recovery was subject to suspensive, environmental or security conditions. According to trade union officials, working conditions were "archaic".
According to a source close to the record, the order book has "deteriorated steadily", so that "most customers" were "gone or about to leave", like the giant American Caterpillar, main customer.
"The employees at the end of the roll"
Tim can "no longer respond to payment requests and additional funds are not available," Fil Filipov employees explained in August during the bankruptcy recovery. "Employees are at the end of the day, Mr. Filipov has done everything to ensure that there is no buyer," said Olivier Crespin, CGT representative.
"We have a multimillion-dollar Bulgarian businessman, part of a multimillionaire group, who wants to get rid of 300 people by charging compensation through the AGS (salary guarantee system)," he insurgent , claiming that the company had "nothing refunded the loan of 3.5 million from the region" Hauts-de-France. "There are some who are angry with Filipov, they are ready to go further," he added to the microphone of Europe 1. "304 employees who will be unemployed as the holidays approach end of year, we do not wish that to anyone. "
Complaint against X
Ten employees, representatives CGT and FO, filed a complaint against X on November 20 for fraud against the operation of recovery conducted in 2017.
In 2017, the Commercial Court "had said that it was the Atlas company that would resume, but in fact Mr. Filipov wanted to be personally the purchaser of the shares," had summarized the AFP employee advocate, Me David Brouwer, November 22nd. "It was discovered in the context of an accounting that the Atlas company has retroceded the shares for one symbolic euro, against the opinion of the Commercial Court," added the lawyer in announcing this complaint.