Reuters: Bankruptcy News: Poultry firm Doux gets 11 bids and hatches own plan

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Poultry firm Doux gets 11 bids and hatches own plan Jul 6th 2012, 17:19 Fri Jul 6, 2012 1:19pm EDT * Several bids target parts of Doux's operations -unions * Unions fears dismantling of group that employs 3,400 * Doux family owners to submit own plan CHATEAULIN, France, July 6 (Reuters) - Debt-burdened poultry group Doux, which went into administration last month, threatening the livelihood of 3,400 workers and 800 farmers in France, has attracted 11 takeover offers, unions at the firm said. Bidders included rival poultry producers LDC and Tilly Sabco, co-operative Terrena, agribusiness firm La Financière Turenne La Fayette, and a consortium led by oilseed group Sofiproteol, union officials said. Doux's administrators had organised a bidding round with a deadline for offers on Thursday as part of efforts to rescue one of the world's largest poultry exporters. The government, which has been pushing for a buyer for the whole group to protect as many jobs as possible with French unemployment at its highest since 1999, had said earlier it was not satisfied with an initial offer from Sofiproteol's consortium. At a meeting of Doux's works council on Friday, Chairman Charles Doux, whose family owns 80 percent of the firm, said he would make an alternative proposal in coming days to maintain the group's activities at least until December, union officials said. Terrena - parent of major French poultry producer Gastronom - bid 24.7 million euros ($30.4 million) for three sites, while La Financière Turenne La Fayette had provisionally offered 25 million euros for two sites, Yannick Guehenno of the FO union told Reuters. Tilly-Sabco confirmed in a statement an offer for the export operations of Doux, which include two plants, pledging to maintain 588 permanent jobs. Unions reacted angrily to the offers, which they said only covered some sites and would not preserve the group. "What is being proposed is the dismantling of the group," Joseph d'Angelo of the CGT union, told Reuters. "The government has to assume its responsibilities." Union officials also said the composition of the consortium led by Sofiproteol had changed, with LDC and Tilly-Sabco no longer taking part, leaving Sofiproteol with its unit Glon Sanders, poultry maker Duc and co-operative Triskalia. Sofiproteol, which had announced its consortium's offer on Thursday, could not be reached for comment. "We think there's room for improvement on the broad outline that they presented to us, both in industrial and social terms," the spokesman for Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll told Reuters. A commercial court in northwest France is due to consider the bids at a hearing on July 23, union officials said. ($1 = 0.8126 euros) (Reporting by Pierre-Henri Allain; Additional reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide and Valerie Parent; Writing by Gus Trompiz; Editing by David Hulmes) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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