Izvestia: shopping centers began to file lawsuits against H&M due to non-payment of rent of 1 billion rubles

Shopping malls have begun to massively file lawsuits against the Swedish clothing retailer H&M due to non-payment of rent in the amount of 1 billion rubles, reported Izvestia with reference to a member of the Presidium of the Russian Council of Shopping Centers (RSTC) Dmitry Moskalenko.

It is specified that a total of 15 criminal cases were opened, in one of which the court has already arrested 215 million rubles. on the network account. However, this is not a grenade that the shopping centers will be able to receive their funds. According to Nadezhda Tsvetkova, head of CORE.XP retail space leasing, the main risk is that the Russian legal entity H&M may declare itself bankrupt.

According to the founder of department stores of Russian designers Slava and Yarmarka, lawyer Alexander Peremyatov, H&M stopped paying rent on time and in full after the sale of goods began. Prior to this, the company paid the funds in full.

According to Dmitry Tomilin, CEO of Eterna, during the sales, H&M’s turnover increased significantly, which made it possible to send money to employees who were fired without severance pay. He clarified that the solution of this issue was a priority for the company, after that the company extinguished other debts.

H&M closed 185 Russian stores in March of this year. But in August, he opened most of them for sales before finally leaving both Russia and Belarus. H&M predicted that leaving Russia, the company’s sixth largest market by revenue, would cost it $200 million and mean layoffs of 6,000 employees.