Paris (AFP)
The board of directors of the production and distribution company of films and series EuropaCorp, in judicial safeguard procedure, approved the safeguard plan of the group of Luc Besson which thus passes under American control.
"The draft safeguard plan provides in particular for the conversion into capital of all receivables from funds managed or advised at the highest level by Vine and Falcon," the group said in a statement.
Vine, one of the creditors who had already expressed interest last year in acquiring a stake, will thus own 60.15% of EuropaCorp and Falcon 6.29%, the balance remaining in the hands of current shareholders, clarified the company.
The American fund and Mr. Besson also concluded "a shareholders' agreement constituting a concerted action taking effect from the completion of the capitalization of the claims".
Placed in judicial safeguard procedure since mid-May, for an initial period of six months, EuropaCorp announced at the end of October that it had obtained an extension of the observation period until May 13, 2020.
The company created in 1999 by Luc Besson experienced a fourth consecutive year in the red, accusing losses of 109.9 million euros between March 2018 and March 2019. That is more than the 82 million losses recorded on the Previous exercice.
After several asset disposals - notably its multiplexes (cinemas from Aéroville in Tremblay-en-France and La Joliette in Marseille) to the Gaumont-Pathé group in 2016, or its television production division at Mediawan in 2018 - and layoffs (22 jobs out of 79 in France in 2018), EuropaCorp essentially has its catalog and its capacity to produce other films.
© 2020 AFP