This could become the “hot” social issue of the presidential campaign. Struggled by the loss in 2021 of a major contract with Orange, Scopelec, the oldest cooperative in France, specializing in the deployment of telecommunications networks, announced on Friday March 18 that it had been placed in safeguard proceedings by a judgment of March 17 rendered by the Commercial Court of Lyon. “Faced with the imperative of the situation, we had no choice but to make this decision. We must now, in this new legal framework, assert our rights in the interest of Scopelec and its employees.”explains Thomas Foppiani, Chairman of the Board of Scopelec.
Thanks to this procedure, the cooperative will be able to suspend the payment of its debts and preserve its cash flow during an observation period of 6 months, renewable. Scopelec has a gross financial debt of 85 million euros, including a state-guaranteed loan of 40 million. It has a cash position of just over 50 million.
This reprieve will be used to study, with the help of the commercial court, various possibilities for reinstatement. If one of them ensures the viability of the company, the court can then decide on a safeguard plan with a potential spreading of the debts over ten years. On the other hand, if no viable solution is found at the end of the observation period, the backup will go into reorganization proceedings or judicial liquidation, which would lead to the sale
Pressure on the government
Aided by the Ministry of the Economy and the Interministerial Committee for Industrial Restructuring, Scopelec had been seeking for several weeks an amicable solution with Orange and several of the competitors so that they could take over some of its employees threatened by the loss of this contract. Corn “in nearly four months, Scopelec has received only partial and inconclusive responses”bitterly regrets the company.
These negotiations have made progress possible. “On the issue of transfers of employees to other contract awardees, Scopelec obtained from several buyers an acceptable contractual framework, with resumption of seniority and maintenance of salary conditions”, appreciates the cooperative. Discussions on measures to compensate for the company’s loss of business through the allocation of “temporary additional volumes” continue, which still leaves some hope. In contrast, “the financial support necessary for the implementation of the restructuring of the group or the compensation of the damages suffered by Scopelec seems impossible to mention”.
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