Group selection: Hundreds of companies are at risk of losing everything

Hundreds of small and large businesses in Quebec stand to lose big — even big — in the restructuring of group selection. In all, the real estate giant racked up nearly a billion dollars in debt before seeking help from the courts.

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That’s what we learned from the first documents made public this morning by a group of insolvency experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Of those, no less than 785 are the names of creditors involved in more than 984 different service files.

The size of the list of companies awaiting payments is impressive. In numbers, most unfortunately never see the color of the sums owed to them.

Banks first

Why? As all companies await payments from the Quebec giant of private residences for seniors (RPA), only twenty – mainly financial institutions – have secured loans.

However, the amount of their loans repayable in priority under such circumstances is approximately $845 million or 93% of the overdue accounts identified so far on the books of Group Selection and its subsidiaries.

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The other 750 or so companies on PwC’s dozen-page list are considered common creditors. In total, the latter accumulate overdue payments that reach $60 million, or an average of $80,000.

Among the big losers

But some companies that are considered regular lenders are likely to suffer more. For example, this is the case with Cafrage Synergy at Lavalltree. The latter faces a shortfall of more than $5.45 million.

Laval’s casualty insurer, Gallagher GPL Insurance, has a $4.35 million shortfall. It is, after Synergy, the second most significant general lender to suffer from the collapse of group selection, as have many others.

More details will follow.

– Philippe Langlois, in collaboration with the Office of Investigation

Debts of the select group

• General creditors – $59,448,138
• Secured creditors – $844,697,651
• Total Receivables: $904,145,791

Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers