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Moment of truth for Price Club could be tomorrow or Thursday

It is widely expected that this week will be win or bust for the Price Club chain of supermarkets with the creditors now fed up waiting for the Italian businessman Giorgio Petricich, to come up with an acceptable guarantee, meaning the company would instead be put into liquidation.

Mr Petricich, the director of Novacom, is going back to Italy today and will try to come back on Thursday, the day the creditors are expected to take Price Club into liquidation, although quite a number of creditors want the process started tomorrow.

Mr Petricich had spoken to a small number of the creditors at the Hilton hotel on Friday about the situation. Surprisingly, few creditors were present during the meeting in which the Novacom Director told them that he needed a guarantee from the Italian bank he’s dealing with. He told the few creditors present that he will finally pay up and conclude the deal.

Speaking to MaltaToday yesterday, Victor Zammit, one of the Directors of the Price Club, said that he had spoken to Mr Petricich several times and that he still feels the businessman genuinely wants to buy out the company.

"Mr Petrich promised me that he was coming to Malta to sort things out. In fact he came to give bank guarantees so that the deal can be sealed," he said. "But he needs some other things to be sewn up to pay the creditors. These things take time and the Italian businessman came into the picture late and did not have enough time to conclude the deal."

He pointed out that PriceWaterhouseCoopers have told the Price Club more than once that if the demands are not met, it will be put into liquidation. "But we already know that," he added. "I think all this pressure is coming because it is also mounting in other camps."