ESSENTIAL FACT
COMPANIES LA POLAR S.A.
REGISTRATION NUMBER IN THE SECURITIES REGISTRY: 806
Santiago, October 27, 2022
Mrs. Solange Berstein Jáuregui
President
Financial Market Commission
Av. Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins N° 1449
Santiago.-
From our consideration:
On behalf of Empresas La Polar S.A. (hereinafter, the “Company”), by virtue of the provisions of Article 9 and the second paragraph of Article 10 of Law No. 18,045, and numeral 2.2 of Section II of General Standard No. 30 of the Commission for the Financial Market, and mandated by the Board of Directors, I come to report the following as an essential fact:
1. As reported by the Company through an essential fact of October 20, 2022, by resolution dated October 18, 2022, the 13th Civil Court of Santiago, in case C-15102-2011, titled “AFP Capital S.A. with Empresas La Polar S.A. and others”, informed the parties of the settlement of the credit it had made, which was duly objected to by the Company within the period granted for that purpose.
By resolution dated October 25 of the 13th Civil Court of Santiago, the seizure was authorized only of the Building of Avenida Santa Clara 207, where its headquarters operates, of some current accounts and own brands of the Company, despite the fact that the aforementioned objection has not been resolved and that there are judicial resources to reverse said judicial resolution, so it does not affect the normal development of the Company’s business. This has caused legitimate expectation to the 4,000 workers of the Company and their families, suppliers and the market in general, all those who see their source of work and business relations affected.
The above situation and AFP Capital’s claim to collect compensation from the Company for alleged damages that occurred as a result of the fraud of the unilateral reagreements carried out by some executives before 2011, constitutes a tremendous injustice, since, being the Company itself the main victim of fraud, it now sees itself in the eventuality of having to, in turn, assume the patrimonial responsibility derived from those facts.
The fact indicated also constitutes an unprecedented anomaly, because despite the fact that the Company presented and approved at the time (2011) a preventive judicial agreement, which was fully complied with and which produced as an economic and legal consequence, the total extinction of all existing credits to date and subject to the agreement -which left it clean of liabilities and contingencies-, must now respond to the credit of AFP Capital S.A. which, being earlier, should and is subject to the agreement, granting this merely valista creditor an odious superpreference at the expense and to the detriment of all other creditors of the Company and of itself, many of whom received at the time bonds convertible into shares, and are currently shareholders of the Company.
The Company has filed several legal appeals against the enforcement procedure and the liquidation of the credit, which are currently being processed both in the court of first instance and before the Court of Appeals of Santiago, and it is confident that the justice of its case will eventually prevail. To the foregoing, it must be added that the Company presented in the aforementioned trial an expert report prepared by the economist, professor and former Minister of State Mr. Rodrigo Valdés and by the economist Mrs. Andrea Butelmann, in which it is realized, through an objective analysis, that AFP Capital did not suffer losses for its investments in shares of the Company and therefore did not experience compensable damages.
Given that the final amounts to be compensated and their origin are under discussion at this stage of compliance with the judgment, it is not possible at the moment to quantify them or inform them to the market.
The Company will be dedicated to finding the best possible solution to safeguard its interests and those of its shareholders.
Without further ado, greets you sincerely,
Manuel Vial Claro
Vice Chairman of the Board
Empresas La Polar S.A.
Link to file in CMFChile: https://www.cmfchile.cl/sitio/aplic/serdoc/ver_sgd.php?s567=2fc289054c6a2b3511a4002e7570dabcVFdwQmVVMXFSWGROUkZGNFRrUkZNVTFCUFQwPQ==&secuencia=-1&t=1682376108
