Will the Guzzo Group, still in serious financial difficulty, manage to avoid the liquidation or sale of its company in pieces, by a receiver appointed by the Court?
This is, in short, the crux of the question which will continue to be the subject of representations in the Superior Court of Quebec this Tuesday, as part of a new legal request seeking the appointment of a receiver with expanded powers.
CIBC and several private lenders (Equitable Bank, Q-8 and Q-12) want Raymond Chabot (RCGT) to take control of the group’s assets and launch a formal, “orderly and structured” process of soliciting investors for the sale of these assets. Together they claim more than $60 million in unpaid debts.
On November 22, Raymond Chabot was appointed by the Court as interim receiver. The latter had Guzzo’s books opened in order to allow him to become aware of its financial situation, without being granted any right to manage and liquidate the company.
Three weeks later, the receiver in the case, Dominic Deslandes, presented the results of his work on Monday before Judge Michel A. Pinsonnault. For a reason that remains unclear, his legal representative Marc-André Morin, of Fasken, requested that this report from the interim receiver be kept under seal, which the judge agreed.
In support of his defense of the Guzzo Group, lawyer Éric Lalanne, presented an independent report, prepared at his request by MNP, suggesting that the company could survive the current storm, with the help of real estate brokers, other than through a process led by a receiver.
Pierre Marchand, the MNP expert, was questioned by prosecutors. His report, however, was not made public, a situation deplored by both the judge and the media prosecutor.
