West Flemish businessman Guido Dumarey has made a new bid for the bankrupt bus manufacturer Van Hool. He is joining forces with a US company ABC Companies, Van Hool's biggest customer in the United States. He also launched a bid last month, but later withdrew that proposal.
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Entrepreneur Guido Dumarey makes new bid for bankrupt bus company Van Hool
Colin Clapson
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Monday morning it was officially announced that bus builder Van Hool had been declared bankrupt. This ended weeks of uncertainty. Parts of the business are being taken over. Dutch bus manufacturer VDL Groep will take over the bus and coach activities, while German trailer manufacturer Schmitz Cargobull will assume control of the industrial vehicles division via its partner company GRW. The takeovers will lead to at least 1,500 redundancies.
Now it appears that businessman Guido Dumarey has made another bid. Under his initial proposal bus production and 1,800 jobs would have stayed in Koningshooikt (Antwerp Province) in Belgium. Dumarey made a proposal valid until 8 April, but when the receivers asked him to extend it, he dropped out. Earlier, he had revealed that the price for the total contents was too high for his liking, especially given the soil contamination at Van Hool's premises.
Who is Guido Dumarey?
Dumarey is an entrepreneur with a lot of experience. In the past, he has acquired and rescued several companies.
He built a new industrial group Punch Powerglide, with factories in France, Italy and the UK. It currently employs 3,500 people. Only last year, he bought Woodall Nicholson, a UK manufacturer of smaller buses that had run into problems.
"The companies I acquired all faced difficulties. The experience I gained I would definitely like to use if I were to take over Van Hool. The craftsmanship at Van Hool should not be lost and I see a future for that," he said as recently as last month.
Yesterday Dumarey made a second attempt. This time he is not doing so alone. "Last weekend, ABC Companies contacted us with a view to making a joint bid," Dumarey explains. ABC Companies is Van Hool's exclusive distributor in the United States, and also a company in which Van Hool is a 38 per cent shareholder.
"We are bidding together - they represent 40 per cent, we wish to acquire 60 per cent - for the bus division in both America and Macedonia. In Belgium, we are interested in the service department, the research & development department, (after)sales. The organisation needs to run all these activities," he outlines.
"We want to keep building buses. Coaches are our first priority. These are manufactured in Macedonia and sold in the US and the rest of the world. The aim is to ensure that ABC Companies gets everything it needs, and that the necessary volumes are achieved in Macedonia. There would absolutely be no focus on regular buses - except for a maintenance centre for the 800 buses currently in operation. We want to focus on profitable activities."
"As for the factory and land in Koningshooikt, I am under no illusion. I had the intention of acquiring it, of renovating the factory and so on, but I no longer plan that today. We are going to make sure that we can launch a local activity which in the first instance we will rent, later we will see how to proceed. If we cannot stay in Koningshooikt, then we will make sure we find the necessary resources in a 20-kilometre radius so we can build an infrastructure ourselves."
More jobs than current takeover
Dumarey is competing against Dutch bus builder VDL, which has set its sights on the same activities. Dumarey is not interested in the industrial vehicles division, for which German trailer manufacturer Schmitz Cargobull has bid.
The West Fleming believes his new bid could generate more jobs than VDL's proposal. "With the activities we foresee, we should do better. It is now up to the receivers to compare which bid is actually the best."
"Study bid seriously"
Flemish Economy Minister Jo Brouns (Christian democrat/CD&V) says any bid must be considered seriously. "There is an agreement with VDL-Schmitz Cargobull that is binding from their side, but the takeover is not yet official. It involves agreements on prices, financing and employment, but that does not stop other bidders from putting another better offer on the table."
"The receivers have to look for the best solution for creditors and the company as a whole. So we are also going to study this bid thoroughly," the minister’s office says. "Time pressure is indeed great," officials admit. "Presumably the receivers will take a decision soon."