The owners of Loja do Gato Preto, the Aquinos group, moved forward approximately a month ago with a special revitalization process (PER) of the household products retail company. And the debts accumulated by the Gato Preto group amount to 49.5 million euros, reveals the provisional list of credits, published this week.
The list of creditors includes workers, suppliers (in the areas of telecommunications, transport, among others), banks and the Aquinos group. At issue are financial problems arising from investments that, due to “market constraints and pressures”, did not go well.
To the digital newspaper Ecowhich this Friday reported the existence of more than 300 creditors in the PER of Loja do Gato Preto, the company highlighted that it intends in this process to “reorganize financial responsibilities”.
Aquinos SA and other companies in the group that controls Loja do Gato Preto have credits of around 26 million euros (the largest portion refers to the supply of goods and services from Aquinos SA, worth 23.8 million euros, but there is also more than 1.6 million euros in supplies from Aquinos Retail SGPS). Among the hundreds of creditors of this PER are also workers.
Banks account for around 25% of claimed credits. Highlights include the Spanish branch of BBVA, with 2.5 million, Novo Banco and BPI, each with 1.9 million euros, CGD, with 1.6 million, BCP, with 1.2 million euros, and Montepio, with 1.03 million euros. There are also other banking creditors, such as BIC and Crédito Agrícola Mútuo da Beira Centro, with less than 1 million euros, as well as Bankinter and BNP Paribas Lease Group.
The workers have credits of approximately 1.6 million euros on Loja do Gato Preto.
As part of the information on the case taking place at the Judicial Court of the District of Lisbon West, in Sintra, there are no unrecognized credits in the provisional list presented by the provisional judicial administrator, Jorge Calvete.
“In view of the current market constraints and pressures, which have significantly affected several sectors of economic activity in Portugal, including specialized retail, Loja do Gato Preto informs that it has entered into a Special Revitalization Process (PER), a necessary measure to face and ensure the continuity of its activity”, explained in September the group led by Carlos Aquino.
With 39 stores (including eight in Spain), the Aquinos group purchased Loja do Gato Preto in 2020, right in the midst of the pandemic, and boosted its internationalization, investing in the brand’s commercial spaces in Portugal and Spain.
Subject to economic and financial pressures accumulated after 2022, a sharp drop in sales, and losses of 15 million euros in 2024, after profits of 127 thousand euros in 2023, the group is now seeking to resolve the adversities, with solutions that allow the revitalization of the Gato Preto chain.
The banks will have tightened their purse strings, especially because they will also be financing the group and not just the company Gato Preto.