The June 30th the deadline approved by the European Comission at the start of the pandemic to allow governments to help struggling companies. This translates into the fact that within two months the €11 billion provided by the government for rescue companies –10,000 for large companies, through the State Industrial Participation Society (SEPI), and 1,000 for SMEs, through Cofides—, of which 5,980 million euros have been requested, 54% of the total, and 2,519 million allocated .6 million, 33%. In other words, unless Brussels extends the term, half of the money provided by the Executive will remain undistributed.
This means that most companies they didn’t need the help of this fund because the big companies have had enough muscle”, SEPI sources value, in charge of managing the Solvency Support Fund, approved in June of last year to help strategic companies weather the pandemic storm with an endowment of €10 billion, of which only 5,310 million euros have been requested. Of this figure, a total of 2,191 million have already been distributed and 444.7 million rejected. The rest is to be resolved.
Altogether, up to 66 companies have asked for this help. A good part belong to the tourism sector, one of the most affected by the mobility restrictions due to the coronavirus. It is the case of the hotel chains Bluebay, Meeting Point, Blue Sea Hotels, Silken, Vincci Hotels, also airlines such as Air Nostrum, Volotea, Air Europa or the Wamos group, and travel agency, like eDreams. But also companies from sectors as varied as the restoration (Mediterranean), feeding (Syrus), aesthetic medicine (alive), or industrial, such as Imasa, Vicinay or Pacadar, among others. From the agency they do not expect new requests since “for months” they have not received any.
The ransom demand bulkier (that is known, since the body does not reveal the list of all the requests and amount) is that of the Catalan steel company Celsa, which has claimed some €550 million and whose application is at an “advanced, but still has not been approved by the Board of Directors&rdquor ;, according to SEPI sources. Celsa has some 300 million euros pending payment to Spanish banks and as many other international funds, after a court of First Instance in Madrid has ruled in its favor and left on ‘stand by’ the payment of its maturing obligations in May 2020, November 2020, May 2021, November 2021 and May 2022, according to company sources.
already rescued
So far, the Council of Ministers has approved the rescue of 21 companies worth of 2,191 million euros. The last ones were the hotels hesperia (55 million) and abba (30 million), last week, as well as groups Julia (38 million) and Mediterranean (28 million), approved in the Council of Ministers this Tuesday. While the first to be rescued was Air Europa (475 million), followed by the Asturian engineering company Duro Felguera (120 million) and the controversial salvation of the airline Plus Ultra (53 million), which marked a before and after in the process by slowing down the resolution of aids.
Since then Ávoris, the company resulting from the integration of the Barceló and Globalia groups, has received public support for a total amount of 320 million; Assembled Tubes, worth 112.8 million; the steel group Rugui Steel (25.03 million), and the hotelier Hotusa (241 million euros). Also the forged manufacturing group, Reinosa Forgings & Castings (27 million); the distribution company SERHS (34 million); artificial intelligence company Artificial (34 million), the timber group Losan (35 million) and Soho Boutique Hotels (30 million); as well as the group Abbots (29.3 million), Gathered techniques (340 million), the group Let’s go (85 million), eurocurrency (45 million) and the metallurgical group Ferroatlantica (34.5 million).
Small companies
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In the case of the pymes, the Government launched the Recapitalization Fund for companies affected by COVID-19 (Fonrec), endowed with 1,000 million euros. With data from April 19, 106 applications have been received, of which 77 were potentially eligible, for a total amount of €670 million. Of these 77, they have been approved 33 for a total amount of 328.6 million euros at the end of April. Among them, Cesgarden (18.6 million euros), Eating Group (7 million), Egile (10.4 million) and Grupo Universo Pachá (18 million), as well as Lladró, a company that initially applied for the SEPI fund , but who later gave up to go to Cofides, by adapting to these requirements.
Sources from this body acknowledge that, in his case, they have received more requests that they are going to “study”, although given the dates on which they are received, they cannot commit to submitting them to the Fonrec Technical Committee before June 30, 2022. “This is what we have warned the requesting companies and consultants. However, we are waiting to receive indications from the European Comission in case there was some kind of moratorium& rdquor ;, they add.