Major business partners of Groupe Sélection, such as Revera, the Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Montoni, officially turned their backs on it yesterday by giving their support to the restructuring project proposed by the lenders.
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In turn, the latter told the story of multiple payment defaults by Selection and recurrent liquidity crises, forcing them – for lack of anything better – to advance the money themselves to prevent real estate projects from failing.
Among them, and not least, the Espace Montmorency, in Laval, still under construction. And the multifunctional neighborhood project to see the light of day, in place of the former Molson brewery, in downtown Montreal. For now, none of these projects would be compromised.
On the fourth and final day of hearings before the Superior Court of Quebec, the largest manager of private seniors’ residences (RPA) and its creditors continued to debate the control of the organization during its restructuring.
Receivables of $270 million
Courtesy picture
Réal Bouclin, big boss of Groupe Sélection.
Struggling with debts of a quarter of a billion dollars, at the very least, Groupe Sélection placed itself Monday under the protection of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).
The company founded by businessman Réal Bouclin suggests that the orders be given to Toronto-based FTI Consulting, while a group of eight lending institutions – including National Bank, Desjardins Group, BMO, CIBC and TD Bank – offer the services of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) instead.
“If there was a risk for residents and staff, Revera would never support such an approach,” argued Me Denis Ferland, of the Ontario company, partner of more than 50% of the Group’s seniors’ residences. Selection.
Revera is concerned about Groupe Sélection’s level of indebtedness, including only $1 billion in mortgages, and says it is ready to welcome the services of Cogir – a competitor of Sélection – in the event that maintaining the well-being of its residents is stakes.
Fear of a cataclysm
“You have to understand that all these mortgages will have to be renegotiated eventually. If we are not able to do the refinancing, it will be a cataclysm, ”he dropped.
The representatives of Montoni and the Fonds FTQ also showed themselves just as worried as they were annoyed by the chronic inability of Sélection to make the necessary injections of money into the projects in which they participate. Both said they had already advanced tens of millions of dollars to cover Selection’s payment defaults.
Judge Michel Pinsonnault has undertaken to render a decision in this case next Monday, at the latest.