Japan’s JPP may come up with 11th hour deal to save Inapa

Portuguese paper distribution company Inapa may have a one week reprieve to stave off bankruptcy after the Japanese paper and pulp group JPP said it would mull a possible acquisition plan over the next few days. 

The 11th hour possible deal comes after news that Inapa had warned its main shareholder, the public company Parpública, that it was facing cashflow problems in 2020 and came up with several capitalisation solutions involving other shareholders, but was met with deaf ears.

And this year it warned that the company was facing bankruptcy over €12 million to meet cashflow needs in Germany, and that insolvency was completely avoidable.

However, according to Jornal Económico and Jornal de Negócios the Japanese company Japan Pulp and Paper (JPP) is mulling over acquiring the company which could stave off imminent bankruptcy proceedings for now.

The interest was expressed during a videoconference of directors, where shareholders representing more than 30% of the capital of the paper distributor were present. Still, the JPP communicated to shareholders that it needs time to implement the proposal. Thus, the four to five business days requested by the Japanese may cause Inapa’s management to withdraw from filing for insolvency, at least for now.

In a statement sent to the Securities Market Commission (CMVM), the members of Inapa IPG’s Board of Directors – who resigned their positions on July 21, after the news of bankruptcy in Germany and Portugal – begin by justifying that “this decision comes after repeated unsuccessful attempts by Inapa to obtain the support of its main shareholder, Parpública, for several alternative capital reinforcement solutions, despite the willingness of other shareholders to help out.”

“In fact, since the beginning of 2020, the management of Inapa presented to Parpública, as the largest shareholder, several capitalisation alternatives, always involving other reference shareholders,” explains the same statement, adding that “after three years of presenting several duly substantiated alternative proposals, it was not possible to move forward with any solution due to Parpública’s unavailability, communicated to Inapa in January 2023.”