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TOYS

Toymaker Brio wards off bankruptcy

Swedish wooden toy maker Brio announced on Wednesday that it had proposed a financial restructuring to ward off bankruptcy.

Published: 11 March 2009 15:06 CET
Toymaker Brio wards off bankruptcy

“After consultation with Brio’s principal owners and major creditors, the board can now present a proposal for financial reconstruction,” the company said in a statement.

According to the proposal, Brio’s shareholder equity would be strengthened by around 314 million kronor ($36 million), while its liquidity would be boosted by at least 175 million kronor.

The company said it would meet the target partly through the issuance of preference shares at 2.20 kronor per share, “which has a considerable dilution effect for existing shareholders.”

“Shareholders holding 78 percent of the shares and 96 percent of the votes in Brio have declared their intention to vote in favour of the board’s proposal,” the company said, adding that the new share issue would be discussed at its annual general meeting on April 27.

The Swedish company also said it planned to refocus on its northern European markets and that its business would be split into separate entities – Brio Toy, encompassing its traditional wooden toy market, and Brio Baby, covering baby articles like strollers, cribs and car seats.

Wednesday’s announcement came after the company, which for the past decade has struggled with significant structural problems, cautioned last month it would “shortly face an acute liquidity shortage” and would rapidly need “a capital injection of a minimum of 300 million kronor.”

The company, which is majority owned by the Swedish investment fund Proventus, replaced its chief executive at the beginning of January after laying off 30 of its 400 employees at the end of last year.

BANKRUPTCY

Half of Swiss hotels, restaurants risk bankruptcy: employer group

Nearly half of Switzerland's restaurants and hotels risk bankruptcy within months failing financial support to weather devastating Covid-19 measures, the sector's employer group warned Sunday.

Published: 11 January 2021 08:00 CET
Half of Swiss hotels, restaurants risk bankruptcy: employer group
Closed restaurants face bankruptcy in Switzerland. Photo by AFP

The Swiss government is expected this week to extend the closure of bars, restaurants and leisure facilities across the country until the end of February to control stubbornly high coronavirus case and death numbers.

But industry federation GastroSuisse warned in a statement that if done  without providing significant financial support, around half of businesses in the restauration and hospitality sector could go belly-up by the end of March.

The group polled around 4,000 restaurant and hotel owners, and determined that 98 percent of them already are in urgent need of financial support.

“The very existence of many of them is threatened,” GastroSuisse president Casimir Platzer said in the statement.

While restaurants and other businesses quickly received financial support when Switzerland went into partial lockdown during the initial wave of infections, GastroSuisse has complained that support during subsequent sporadic closures has lagged.

Before the crisis, more than 80 percent of Swiss restaurants and hotels were in a good or very good position of liquidity, the study showed.

But that situation quickly deteriorated.

In October, as a second wave of infections picked up steam, the organisation cautioned that 100,000 jobs were at risk.

And during the final two months of 2020, nearly 60 percent of restaurant and hotel establishments were forced to conduct layoffs for a second time, it said.

Without government intervention, a third wave of layoffs is looming, Platzer warned.

The latest closures were to be lifted on January 22, but the government said last week it wanted to extend the deadline for a further five weeks.

GastroSuisse said the final announcement, due Wednesday, needed to be
accompanied by “immediate and uncomplicated” financial support to the sector
to avoid “disaster”.

USAM, a union that represents small and medium-sized businesses in Switzerland, called Sunday for the government not to prolong or tighten measures, warning it was an “existential question” for many of its members.

Switzerland, a country of 8.6 million people, is currently registering around 4,000 Covid-19 cases a day and had by Friday seen nearly 476,000 cases and 7,545 deaths since the start of the pandemic. 

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