Damm and Luxempart to get 30 percent of Pescanova in proposed restructure

A plan to refloat Pescanova presented by a consortium of brewer Damm and Luxembourg investment fund Luxempart would entail the two partners controlling at least 30 percent of the Spanish multinational seafood processor. Most of the rest of the firm’s capital would go to creditor banks through a debt-for-equity swap involving haircuts of between 60 and 90 percent on the amount owed.

Pescanova went into receivership in April of last year with a negative net worth in 2012 of 1.487 billion euros. Former chairman Manuel Fernández de Sousa, along with most of the former board of directors, has been named as an official suspect in an ongoing High Court investigation of the company’s financial affairs, and faces possible charges of providing false economic and financial information and insider trading

The plan presented by the consortium also calls for an injection of up to 150 million euros in capital and loans to ensure its viability. Credit banks would inject 105 million euros of this and Damm and Luxempart the remaining 45 million.

In a statement filed Tuesday with the National Securities Commission (CNMV), the consortium said that after the restructuring, minority Pescanova shareholders would hold 4.99 percent of the refloated company, with Damm, Luxempart and creditor banks holding the remaining 95.01 percent.

Total financial debt after the restructuring would stand at 812.5 million euros, excluding what the group’s foreign units owed.