/raid1/www/Hosts/bankrupt/TCREUR

/raid1/www/Hosts/bankrupt/TCREUR_Public/010403.mbx T R O U B L E D C O M P A N Y R E P O R T E R E U R O P E Tuesday, April 03, 2001, Vol. 2, No. 65 Headlines * C Z E C H R E P U B L I C * MASOKOMBINAT KLATOVY: Court Confirms Bankruptcy TCHECOMALT GROUP: HZ Praha to Advise Sale ZETOR: Creditors to Vote This Week * G E R M A N Y * EM.TV: Sells SLEC Stake for $583.6 Million INTERSHOP COMMUNICATIONS: Faruqi & Faruqi Files Lawsuit MET@BOX AG: Begins Restructuring Program * H U N G A R Y * SZIV TV: Court Rules Liquidation Process * N E T H E R L A N D S * HEINEKEN HOLDING: Lobby Group Says Holding Considers Liquidation * U N I T E D K I N G D O M * ARCADIA GROUP: To Sell Retail Outlets BCR INDUSTRIES: Foundry Melts Into Insolvency BRITISH TELECOM: Hampton Turns Down Top Job CALLUNA PLC: US Buyer May Help Save Disk-Drive Maker CLAIMS DIRECT: Claims Handler Heads Into Red COMPASS GROUP: To Sell Heritage Hotel CORUS GROUP: Unions Angry at Share Options CORUS GROUP: Unions Angry at Share Options HUNTINGDON LIFE: Drug Firms Are Protesters' Next Target MARKS & SPENCER: Climbs 11% on Restructuring Plan MARKS & SPENCER: May Face French Lawsuit MARKS & SPENCER: To Leave London Headquarters SCOTIA HOLDINGS: To Appeal Foscan Decision =========================== C Z E C H R E P U B L I C ============================ MASOKOMBINAT KLATOVY: Court Confirms Bankruptcy ----------------------------------------------- A Prague court confirmed the bankruptcy of meat processor Masokombinat Klatovy, Czech A.M. in its March 27 edition said. The court ruling will allow the establishment of a creditors committee and the subsequent sale of the company, which owes creditors some Kc 200 million. TCHECOMALT GROUP: HZ Praha to Advise Sale ----------------------------------------- HZ Praha has been selected as the adviser for the combined sale of majorities in bankrupt Tchecomalt Group and Potravinarsky Holding, Czech A.M. in its March 27 edition reported. HZ Praha will recommend a suitable investor in June. CSOB has promised to finance the malt-producing group at approximately Kc 340 million, Tchecomalt receiver Pavel Tomcala said. ZETOR: Creditors to Vote This Week ---------------------------------- Creditors of Zetor will vote on Wednesday on court settlement with the tractor maker, otherwise go bankrupt, Czech A.M. in its March 30 edition said. Zetor owes some Kc 6 billion. ============= G E R M A N Y ============= EM.TV: Sells SLEC Stake for $583.6 Million ------------------------------------------ EM.TV & Merchandising AG sold a 24.5% stake in SLEC, the holding company that organizes Formula One auto races, to the Kirch Group for 1.3 billion marks ($583.6 million or 664.7 million euros) in its efforts to repay bank debts, Reuters in its April 2 report said. After the sale of the stake to partner Kirch, cartoon distributor EM.TV is as good as debt free, except for a 400 million euro convertible-bond issue. About 265 million marks in bank debt, linked with EM.TV's purchase of the muppets creator Jim Henson Co., would soon be paid off. INTERSHOP COMMUNICATIONS: Faruqi & Faruqi Files Lawsuit ------------------------------------------------------- Faruqi & Faruqi LLP announced on March 30 that it recently filed lawsuits against Intershop Communications AG, Nortel Networks, Amazon.com, Inc. and New Focus, Inc. for violations of the federal securities laws, Business Wire reported. MET@BOX AG: Begins Restructuring Program ---------------------------------------- Met@box AG notified its workers in a staff assembly that the organization will be restructured, a March 30 press release from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange reported. To secure the success of the core business of the company, which is the development of devices and systems for interactive television, the group will part with non-strategic businesses. Furthermore, a program will be started to reduce the fixed costs of the organization. This will mean that approximately 30% of the staff will be given notice of dismissal. The reduction of staff will create an annual saving of approximately 2.8 million DEM. ============= H U N G A R Y ============= SZIV TV: Court Rules Liquidation Process ---------------------------------------- The Budapest Court said that a liquidation process has started against television channel company Sz」 TV Rt, Hungary AM in its March 27 edition reported. Keszau-Solder Serec-L Kft will be in charge of the liquidation process. The company owes Ft 170 million to the Hungarian Broadcasting Corporation. It went bankrupt in 1999 but the authorities only suspended its operation rights. ===================== N E T H E R L A N D S ===================== HEINEKEN HOLDING: Lobby Group Says Holding Considers Liquidation ---------------------------------------------------------------- Profima Trust, the lobby group for investors in Heineken Holding, reported in a fax that the holding has agreed to discuss the liquidation of the investment vehicle that gives Freddy Heineken full control over Dutch brewer Heineken even though he owns only 25% of shares, Het Financieele Dagblad & World Reporter in its March 30 edition said. A spokesperson for Heineken Holding said that he had not received the fax, but that the company had already planned to put this issue on the agenda. The spokesman said that a liquidation of the holding is not an option. =========================== U N I T E D K I N G D O M =========================== ARCADIA GROUP: To Sell Retail Outlets ------------------------------------- Retailing group Arcadia Group PLC will announce this week the sale of some of its best-known store chains, including Hawkshead, Racing Green and Principles, to concentrate on key brands such as Top Shop, Evans and Dorothy Perkins, The Observer reported on Sunday. Warehouse, Wallis and Miss Selfridge may also be sold over the next 12 to 18 months, the paper added. Furthermore, it is pulling out of the Dial home shopping joint venture with Littlewoods and Internet service provider Zoom. Arcadia Group at the end of 2000 had current liabilities of 404.00 million pounds, while total current assets were only 325.40 million pounds. BCR INDUSTRIES: Foundry Melts Into Insolvency --------------------------------------------- BCR Industries closed on Thursday with the loss of 137 jobs after running up debts of around 2 million pounds and loosing several key customers, Birmingham Post reported in its March 30 edition, citing corporate recovery experts from Moore Stephens Booth White. It is the second time in seven months that BCR, formerly Rudge Newby Industries, has crashed into insolvency. BCR Industries, which made castings for heavy industry, has never really got back on its feet following the collapse of the previous company. A creditors' meeting has been organized for April 11 at Moore Stephens Booth White's Birmingham office. BRITISH TELECOM: Hampton Turns Down Top Job ------------------------------------------- British Telecom finance director Philip Hampton have turned down the role as chief executive at the troubled telecom company after it was offered earlier last month, according to The Scotsman newspaper yesterday. Some large institution shareholders, who were angry at the performance of chairman Sir Iain Vallance and the current chief executive Sir Peter Bonfield, were believed to press Hampton to take the top job. Some directors, however, say Hampton lacks sufficient experience. BT would not comment on the matter. Hampton is said to disagree strongly with Bonfield over the strategy for dealing with the company's 30 billion-pound debt mountain and plummeting share price. CALLUNA PLC: US Buyer May Help Save Disk-Drive Maker ---------------------------------------------------- Talks with an undisclosed third party, thought to be American, have been going well to rescue part of troubled disk-drive manufacturer Calluna, which was expected to shut down operations after running out of cash and orders, The Sunday Times reported. According to Iain Watters, joint administrator for Calluna Technology, the trading company that went into administration a year ago, it is understood that a deal is possible to save part of the business and probably involves acquiring some part of the technology. The company's problems were due to trading losses, marketing failures, an inability to meet orders and finance a business that eats cash. Calluna's shares were suspended a year ago following a dive in its share price, the Times added. CLAIMS DIRECT: Claims Handler Heads Into Red -------------------------------------------- Investor confidence in Midland personal injury claims handler Claims Direct collapsed further when the company said it would lose 20 million pounds this year, Birmingham Post in its March 29 edition said. Company secretary Paul Doona has blamed negative publicity, increase in the number of rival companies and defendant insurers, who refused to pay for the insurance premiums arguing Claims Direct's 1,350-pound charge is too dear, for the collapse into the red. Doona expects to return to profit during the next financial year, after the reduction of its 15 million-pound advertising budget and the reorganization of its head office in Telford. So far, ten of the 150 staff has been laid off. COMPASS GROUP: To Sell Heritage Hotel ------------------------------------- Contract catering group Compass Group Plc is poised to sell Heritage Hotels this week in a 230 million-pound deal with the Bank of Scotland and MacDonald Hotels, the Scotland on Sunday newspaper reported. Compass refused to comment on the sale. Following the Heritage disposal, Compass is expected to sell later this month the Posthouse chain to Bass for up to 850 million pounds. The sales of Heritage and Posthouse would leave Compass well on its way to achieve its target of raising more than 3 billion pounds from the break up of its hotel business. The catering group has already raised more than 300 million pounds from some of its lower grade hotels, including Strand Palace and Regent Palace sites. At the end of 2000, Compass' current liabilities were 1.26 billion pounds while total current assets were only 1.04 billion pounds. The company had a common shareholder's equity of -474.00 million pounds. It also had a long term debt of 1.09 billion pounds as of September and total liabilities were 2.46 billion pounds. CORUS GROUP: Unions Angry at Share Options ------------------------------------------ Steelmaker Corus clashed with unions on Friday after it emerged that directors Tony Pedder, David Lloyd, Franswillem Briet and Henk Vrins have been granted a total of 1.7 million share options, The Times in its March 31 edition said. An AEEU spokesman said that the share options are inappropriate at a time when it is intending to make 6,000 employees redundant. "We don't see a relationship between the granting of options and job losses." Corus said that the options were exercisable only if the company met performance targets on shareholder return and the return on capital employed. HUNTINGDON LIFE: Drug Firms Are Protesters' Next Target ------------------------------------------------------- Drug firms, which includes Bayer, Novartis and Roche, are the next target of animal rights campaigners protesting against the closure of the drug testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences, The Observer reported on Sunday. Last week, the campaigners successfully frightened off HLS' market makers Winterflood Securities and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. The loss has meant it is more difficult to trade HLS's shares. "We're really going to step up targeting companies connected to HLS. The City now doesn't want to go anywhere near the company, so now we're looking at Huntingdon's customers," according to Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty's spokesman Greg Avery. A company insider admitted HLS was disappointed by the City's actions. He said that the protesters have realized that focusing on one company at a time can make them crumble. MARKS & SPENCER: Climbs 11% on Restructuring Plan ------------------------------------------------- Shares of Marks & Spencer have climbed as much as 11%, or up to 276 1/2 pence, after the group revealed that it would shed much of its non-UK business and cut over 4,000 jobs in a radical shake-up to rebuild profits, according to a Namnews report on Friday. M&S made a commitment to return 2 billion pounds ($2.87 billion) of cash to shareholders by March 2002. The company also announced it would close its 38 shops in continental Europe, sell U.S. units Brooks Brothers tailors and Kings Super Markets and scrap its UK catalogue business. MARKS & SPENCER: May Face French Lawsuit ---------------------------------------- British clothing retailer Marks & Spencer could face legal action because it failed to consult workers before it announced its closure program, BBC News in its April 1 edition said. On Thursday, Marks & Spencer announced that it would cut 4,390 jobs and close its 38 shops in Europe, including 18 in France. This came as a surprise not just for its staff but its managers too. France has the most M&S stores in Europe outside of Britain, with 18, and employs 1,700 people. "It looks like the workers and even those in charge of the French shops were informed at the same time as the press and the stock market by a simple e-mail," French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said. "The workers who give life to this group and who enrich this group should be treated in a different way. Such behavior deserves to be punished," he said. Jospin said an inquiry has been opened to see if Marks & Spencer can face charges under the country's employment protection laws that unions and works committees need to be consulted before any major decision of this nature can be taken. MARKS & SPENCER: To Leave London Headquarters --------------------------------------------- Marks & Spencer's is considering moving the company out of its 200,000-square feet headquarters in London's Baker Street, The Sunday Times reported, citing chairman Luc Vandevelde. Vandevelde added that no firm decision had been made yet but he would consult his staff before reaching any conclusion. The chairman is said to be keener on staying in London. Last week, Vandevelde announced a rescue plan for the retailer, including about 700 job redundancies at the headquarters. He is also going to pull out of Europe and sell its American businesses, Brooks Brothers and Kings supermarkets. SCOTIA HOLDINGS: To Appeal Foscan Decision --------------------------------------------- Biotechnology firm Scotia Holdings will appeal a decision taken by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) to reject the cancer drug Foscan, the Scotsman newspaper in its March 31 report said. Scotia intends to resolve the grounds for the appeal with the EMEA by April 6. The report published by administrators Ernst & Young said that Scotia conducted a new analysis and representation of the data, which demonstrates that Foscan's level of efficacy is likely to be higher than that disclosed in the original submission. Ernst & Young said it had consulted with major creditors as to whether the company should appeal against this decision. S U B S C R I P T I O N I N F O R M A T I O N Troubled Company Reporter -- Europe is a daily newsletter co- published by Bankruptcy Creditors' Service, Inc., Trenton, NJ USA, and Beard Group, Inc., Washington, DC USA. Kimberly MacAdam, Salve M. Mordeno and Cristina Pernites, Editors. Copyright 2001. All rights reserved. ISSN 1529-2754. This material is copyrighted and any commercial use, resale or publication in any form (including e-mail forwarding, electronic re-mailing and photocopying) is strictly prohibited without prior written permission of the publishers. Information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed. The TCR Europe subscription rate is $575 per half-year, delivered via e-mail. Additional e-mail subscriptions for members of the same firm for the term of the initial subscription or balance thereof are $25 each. For subscription information, contact Christopher Beard at 301/951-6400. * * * End of Transmission * * *