As our investigative authority has learned, the Mach Group intends to make a purchase offer to acquire the residential rental complexes built by the deposed developer Stéphan Huot.
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“I assure you that we will make an offer by Wednesday […] Everyone benefits from this offer,” Mach Group President Vincent Chiara said during a phone interview.
A major player in the province’s real estate scene, Montreal-based Groupe Mach owns several office, commercial and residential buildings in the Saint-Roch district and elsewhere in Quebec, including Place de la Cité and Complexe Jules-Dallaire.
Three weeks ago, the company signed an agreement in principle to acquire multiple rental properties with total assets of approximately $650 million. That agreement would be the result of discussions and negotiations that began last May, three months after media coverage of the Huot Group’s bankruptcy.
The buildings in question – Les 7 Elements, Les Diplomates, La Cité M, Les Façades du Mesnil, Ariela, Le Consolata and Les Méandres Business Center – are currently protected under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. The court appointed a liquidator to sell these buildings and compensate creditors.
Millionaires share
Should the transaction go ahead, all secured creditors would have to be repaid, Mr Chiara said. Quebec’s millionaires, who since the Huot Group went bust, have multiplied their steps to salvage the roughly M$220 invested in Stéphan Huot’s companies, would also have their share of the pie.
The Mach Group intends to take a stake in the new company, which will take control of the rental properties.
“It will give them the opportunity, over time, to recover all or part of the investment they have made in this project,” assures Vincent Chiara, who intends to restore the letters of nobility on the buildings that once belonged to the Huot group.
Recall that since his debacle, Stéphan Huot has had almost all of his rental properties expropriated, falling into the hands of trustees or creditors, our investigative office announced last week.
– In collaboration with Pierre-Paul Biron