You know how everyone talks about how you need to start buying stocks? The Dutch government seems to have taken this advice to heart, as it considered becoming a co-shareholder of the popular Dutch chain, HEMA.
However, this potential purchase wasn’t just a strategic investment move. HEMA has been making losses for years and this was actually supposed to help save the retail chain.
HEMA has a historical and sentimental value for many Dutchies and the Ministry of Economic Affairs was afraid of the political and social consequences if the store was to disappear… so they just decided to buy it.
The deal was that if the retail chain fails to reach an agreement with creditors, the government would buy 50 million worth of stocks to save the company, reports the NOS.
The final decision
However, the purchase was ultimately stopped by the Dutch Minister of Finance, Woepke Hoekstra, who wanted to let the market do its magic. So how did things end for the beloved store?
HEMA announced at the end of last December that it would be taken over by the Dutch investment fund Parcom and the owners of Jumbo. The debts of the current creditors would only be taken up by the three big banks — ABN Amro, ING, and Rabobank.
Would you have liked to see the government buying HEMA? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
Feature Image: Jordy Schaap/Wikimedia Commons/CC4.0
I don’t know what is the best way but I only want HEMA staying with us because it is a Dutch icon and all of us, tourists, locals and Dutch people, love to go there and have a good time enjoying a tampouce while buying nice things