The sale two and a half years ago of the SCOP Alpine Aluminum de Cran-Gevrier, in Annecy (Haute-Savoie) to businessman Franck Supplisson and the Samfy Invest Group, will it be canceled?
This is what the deputy prosecutor of the Annecy Judicial Court will request this Wednesday before the commercial court. An extraordinary hearing for an extremely rare request.
In December 2019, the same commercial court sold the historic aluminum manufacturing site on the banks of the Fier to Franck Supplisson, who is now also the subject of a criminal complaint in this case.
The buyer did not keep his commitments
Prior to this hearing, the Prosecutor, Benoit Defournel explains the reasons for his requisition.
France Blue : Why are you requesting the cancellation of the sale of the Scop Alpine Aluminium?
Benoit Defournel : We are making this request because the buyer has not kept his commitments. He had made a commitment on several points with the Annecy commercial court. The first was to maintain employment with the takeover of 49 employment contracts from Alpine Aluminum. The second was the creation of new jobs and the last was the maintenance of the aluminum activity on the site. However, what we see more than two years after the sale of the company is that these commitments are obviously not being respected since of the 49 original employment contracts which were to be maintained, there there’s more than one. And layoffs came very quickly after the sale. It is also observed that everything that allowed the continuation of the aluminum activity on the site was removed and was resold.
FB : why did it take so long? Because six months after the sale, we said it elsewhere on France Bleu Pays de Savoie, that all the employees, except one, had been dismissed, so why react so late?
comics : because the buyer had enough time to implement all its commitments and the dismissal of the 49 employees, in itself, was not prohibited if certain conditions were met. So there were formal notices, explanations that were requested from the buyer. So all of that takes time. Reports must be drawn up by the procedural bodies, sent to the commercial court, or sent to the public prosecutor so that we can then decide whether or not this resolution can be requested from the court.
No action has been taken to ensure the maintenance of the aluminum activity
FB : the buyer tells him that he is currently recreating an industrial activity on the site. You must have checked all these elements there?
comics : this has been verified as part of the commercial procedure, in particular by the judicial liquidator. I believe that we do not have the same conception of the notion of commitments made in court. Me, what seems obvious to me is that the aluminum activity no longer exists on the site. Moreover, the elements of the file rather tend to demonstrate that no action was implemented to ensure the maintenance of the activity.
The buyer says that he creates jobs, where he rents offices and collects rents.
FB : Even if the buyer advances, even if it no longer seems relevant, that he is in contact with Airbus for the resumption of an activity on aircraft carriers in particular.
comics : we have very few elements on this aspect of its activity. And then, we also have a buyer who talks about jobs, which are not really Alpine Aluminum jobs, since they are jobs from other companies that carry out an activity on the Le Fier site, but paying rent at Alpine Aluminum. They are therefore not employees of Alpine Aluminum employees.
FB : The request you are making today, this cancellation of assignment, is extremely rare. What can be the consequences?
comics : What is certain is that if this resolution is pronounced, the buyer loses control of the company Alpine Aluminum and also loses control of the site.
FB : even if he calls?
comics : even if he appeals since a priori the decision of the commercial court is enforceable by provisions. And then there may also be quite significant financial consequences for the buyer since the sale price of one million euros is not returned. There is also the price of the assets, in particular of the stocks which have been sold, they can be returned to the procedure.
Land on the banks of the Fier may be sold to pay creditors
FB : There will be no revival of aluminum industrial activities since everything has been dismantled. At first, anyway. What happens to the 8 ha of land? Who sells them?
comics : so that’s too early to tell you. Again, it is the commercial court that will rule on the future of the Alpine Aluminum Company and its site. If, of course, the resolution is pronounced. The most likely, indeed, is that there will then be a compulsory liquidation, which we call pure and simple, which will be pronounced, ie a sale of the assets of the company of the site to compensate the creditors. But it is also possible, although unlikely, that new takeover offers will be filed with other projects.
The judgment of the commercial court should be handed down in the coming days.