(BFM Bourse) – Let’s Gowex, Innoveox, or Cellnovo, examples of the liquidation of listed companies are not lacking. Although this event remains exceptional, the fact remains that shareholders will be the last to be served. A scenario that means losing 100% of your stake – hence the need to know how to cut your losses before the worst happens. Toupargel shareholders could soon be faced with this scenario.
The frozen king is no more. Place du Marché (formerly Toupargel) closed its doors for good for lack of a buyer to relaunch the company specializing in the sale of frozen products.
At the end of the hearing which was held on Friday, the Lyon commercial court pronounced the opening of a judicial liquidation procedure without continuation of activity against the ex-Toupargel. The health crisis and then the wave of inflation have weakened the Place du Marché company. “We no longer had enough customers to make as many orders as possible. In fact, turnover has fallen from month to month, from year to year”, explained Frédéric Coat, FO union representative at BFM Business.
The shareholders of Toupargel are therefore at their expense. The listing of the share, suspended since October 22, 2019, has never resumed. The company had been renamed Place du Marché in early 2021, after its takeover in January 2020 by Grand Frais, already within the framework of a receivership procedure. This takeover led to the delisting of Toupargel shares from the regulated market of Euronext Paris on February 10, 2020.
“However, the securities continue to exist as long as the company is not removed from the trade and companies register. Thus, if they remain registered in the account opened with your bank, the latter may continue to charge fees guard” warns the AMF. And this is the case of Toupargel, which has not yet been struck off the register of commerce and companies. Moreover, some Toupargel shareholders indicated that their financial intermediaries had not closed their lines two years after the delisting of the shares by Euronext. The treatment seems unequal from one shareholder to another.
“The company is in liquidation, it seems, but customer service tells me that the securities cannot be deleted because the procedure is not yet complete. I would like to close my securities account but I cannot. because of this line that cannot be deleted” explains one of Toupargel’s shareholders on a stock market forum. Another shareholder indicates in this same forum, that his line housed with another financial intermediary has for his part “disappeared at the end of 2020”.
To understand these differences in the handling of the file, BFM Bourse contacted several financial intermediaries. No broker was able or wished to provide any information on the case of people still holding Toupargel shares in their portfolio.
The good shareholders last on the list
Although fortunately this does not happen every day, the disappearance of a listed company is not an exceptional event, and shareholders must never forget the risk involved. Because in the event of liquidation, they find themselves dead last on the list of creditors to be repaid.
It is up to the liquidator, appointed by the courts, to sell the assets that may still be sold on behalf of the various creditors listed in the liabilities. Once everything is sold, the refund is made according to what is called the order of privileges. In the first place, it is the collection of most taxes which has priority, sometimes even before employees (who nevertheless benefit from the wage guarantee scheme, in other words a national fund which allows employees to receive the sums corresponding to their salary even if there are no funds left in the company).
Then come what are called unsecured creditors, who do not benefit from any particular privilege, in particular suppliers. The reimbursement of banks and other creditors also depends on any mortgages or pledges.
It is only if the debts of all these creditors have been cleared that the shareholders can hope to share what is called a liquidation bonus. It goes without saying that in the event of judicial liquidation – intervening when the company is no longer able to honor its debts and presenting liabilities greater than assets – it should not be counted on. It is therefore a dead loss to which investors are exposed.
Think about declaring your capital losses to the tax authorities
All they have to do is claim their loss with the tax authorities, which may require some tedious procedures. In the past it was necessary to wait for the liquidation to close (which can take years). From now on, it is possible to have your capital losses recognized as soon as the liquidation judgment is pronounced, if it clearly mentions the nullity of the value of the shares. This provision has its origins in the emblematic and no less dramatic bankruptcy of Moulinex in 2001.
“To enable holders of Moulinex securities to record their capital losses, the quotation of the shares will be resumed from November 14 to December 14, 2001 inclusive, in the compartment of securities delisted from the regulated markets” had it been proposed to small holders of Moulinex to get rid of their shares. However, the latter were unable to sell their Moulinex shares for lack of a buyer opposite in the order book. Who would indeed want to position themselves on a stock whose company is bankrupt?
Deputy Charles de Courson thus included the “Moulinex amendment” in the amending finance law for 2002 in its article 12 published in the Official Journal of December 31, 2001. This provision therefore allows unfortunate shareholders to impute tax losses on the shares of bankrupt companies when a judgment ordering the sale of the company (in the absence of any continuation plan) or its judicial liquidation has been rendered.
To do this, you must obtain a copy of the judgment from the registry of the court that issued the judicial decision and then send it to your financial intermediary so that he can see the liquidation and the zero value of the shares. The latter will send a certificate of realized gain and loss, under the wording “losses on securities following collective proceedings”, which will have to be produced to the tax authorities to charge, if necessary, the loss on his gains.
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2023 BFM Bourse