Around 100 “senior employees and managers” of the French fashion group SMCP (with the brands Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot), including the founders Evelyne and Ilan Chétrite and Judith Milgrom, hold 10.3 percent of the company after converting preferred shares Capital of the textile group, according to a statement from the company on Friday.
Between 2016 and 2017, the group, which also owns the De Fursac brand, “exceptionally” granted almost 1.3 million “preference shares” with a par value of 1.10 euros to 98 SMCP officers and managers, according to the company stated in the press release.
The beneficiaries included Evelyne Chétrite, Judith Milgrom and Ilan Chétrite, the “founders and managing directors” of the company.
These shares “were convertible by their beneficiaries” into just over five million shares of common stock on January 1 of each year, beginning January 1, 2019 and ending January 1, 2025.
The group’s shares were worth 3.66 euros when the market opened on January 2nd. The company’s capital now consists of 78,326,898 common shares. “The latest information regarding the associated voting rights will be posted on the company’s website on January 6,” SMCP said.
After this transaction, “the founders and managers of SMCP hold 10.3 percent of the capital and 14.7 percent of the voting rights of the company,” but “it is expected that the holders of the common shares resulting from the conversion (. ..) will sell these ordinary shares before December 31, 2025, taking into account the applicable tax regulations.
The group’s shareholder structure has been the subject of a legal dispute between former majority shareholder European TopSoho, owned by Chinese group Shandon Ruyi, and its creditors, who have become majority shareholders of SMCP.
Through the organization “Glas”, they now hold 28.8 percent of the capital of SMCP and are also contesting the transfer of 15.9 percent of the capital in 2021 to an organization incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The British judiciary confirmed the nullity of this assignment in early September, and SMCP subsequently declared that Glas intended to “apply for the compulsory return” of this capital held in Singapore. (AFP)