Rouen (AFP)

Justice will decide on January 16 the fate of the young Norman company Remade (reconditioning of smartphones) whose difficulties threaten at least 330 jobs, we learned Thursday from concordant sources.

This was indicated by several sources including the president of Remade Renaud Le Youdec, at the end of a hearing in camera before the Commercial Court of Rouen.

The judges heard on Thursday two potential buyers, one offering to save 142 jobs, the other 118, according to industrialists interviewed by AFP at the end of the hearing behind closed doors.

"It seems very likely that the offer" containing 118 jobs "will be accepted" by the court, said, without wanting to say more, the CFDT secretary of the CSE Sophie Garcia, questioned by AFP after the hearing.

"The CSE told the court that it was necessarily in favor of this offer", despite some reservations including the amount put on the table "which may be insufficient," added CSE lawyer Thomas Hollande.

The ex-CEO of the company launched in 2014 Matthieu Millet promises to take 142 jobs and put 1.3 million valuation of inventory value on the table. "I want to save my baby," he told reporters after being heard in court.

"It is very highly improbable that Matthieu Millet's offer will be accepted," assured Me Hollande.

Mr. Millet has in the past been banned from running several other businesses. Remade is also the subject of a preliminary investigation carried out by the Rennes prosecution for false assessment.

For his part, the British Suresh Radhakrishnan who has "more than 25 years of experience in this field" according to his lawyer Vincent Pellier, would take over 118 jobs and put 3.3 million on the table via Forth Wave Technology, one of the companies he created in 2019.

"I think Remade is a very good company, one of the few to do high quality reconditioning. In more ways than one it is a jewel of France", declared to the press Mr. Radhakrishnan, saying he wanted to develop export.

In judicial liquidation with continuation of activity since November 28, Remade however displays a stock of 25,000 to 33,000 refurbished iPhones ready to be marketed.

The group, whose main site is in Poilley, near Mont-Saint-Michel (Manche), had reached a workforce of 680 people in 2019.

"To hide the group's collapse," Remade "artificially inflated its turnover," said Syndex in a report for the CSE, dated November, which Millet denies.

© 2020 AFP