We learned in a press release on Wednesday morning that SA Intell, which operates the Filigranes bookstores, has requested the opening of a “transfer procedure under judicial authority”This request was submitted to the French-speaking Business Tribunal of Brussels, during the hearing which was held precisely this Wednesday.
Dierendonck, Filigranes, Yves Matagne… to revive the Galerie Bortier, a little-known gem in the centre of Brussels
A period of reprieve
“SA Intell explained on the one hand that the Filigranes booksellers are experiencing structural difficulties linked to the crisis affecting the book sector. On the other hand, it was specified that despite significant restructuring work, the company, which operates three Filigranes points of sale in Etterbeek, Ixelles and Knokke, is unable to restore its financial balance, in particular due to the sector’s low margins, the increase in costs and mobility problems.”it is mentioned in a press release from the French-speaking Business Court of Brussels. As a result of these difficulties, the company Intell has therefore requested the opening of a transfer procedure under judicial authority.
“The objective sought in introducing this procedure is to enable one or more projects to be found for the resumption of activities and personnel and to present them to the Court at the end of a requested suspension period of 4 months”is still mentioned in the press release.
Concentration in the hands of billionaires, VAT and “sensitivity readers”: are the concerns about books well-founded?
Concretely, a legal representative will be appointed. He will be responsible for finding one or more buyers and finding the best possible offers. These could be competing or complementary: one could indeed imagine that a point of sale is taken over by a buyer and another bookstore by another company. A scenario of dismantling Filigranes is therefore not to be excluded. The Court will obviously be sensitive to the quality of the offers that will be submitted, to the amounts put on the table but also to the number of jobs saved in the context of the possible takeover.
It is therefore a race against time that begins to save this bookseller well known to readers, who had already announced a restructuring plan last February.
Let’s also remember that the founder, Marc Filipson, took a step back in 2022 following accusations of harassment.
