Does debt push Hema in the hands of creditors?

Creditors have offered to cancel half of the debt of Dutch chain Hema (some 300 million euros), if owner Marcel Boekhoorn hands them the ownership.

Mountain of debts

The proposal is now being discussed by the chain’s management, Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports. Hema’s debt to the creditors is nearly 600 million euros, half of which would be cancelled if Boekhoorn agrees to part from his company after only 1.5 years in charge.

Hema’s financial trouble are not new, but have been made much graver by the coronavirus crisis as its stores abroad had to close. In the Netherlands, where stores were allowed to remain open, turnover also fell by a large amount. Just this week, Hema delayed the publication of its full-year results again as accountants could not guarantee the chain’s viability.