Nova Receivers Visit METI 4

29 October 2007
Court-appointed receivers for NOVA Corp., the failed operator of Japan's largest English conversation school chain, said they have asked the government regulator to cooperate in supporting students and bailing out the firm.

The two lawyers, Toshiaki Higashibatake and Noriaki Takahashi, made the requests in a meeting Monday with high-ranking officials of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Service Industries Division.

In response, ministry officials urged them to make their own efforts to rehabilitate the scandal-tainted, failed company. The ministry has maintained that there is no legal framework for extend assistance to listed companies that have gone under.

The receivers are trying to find a backer to help rehabilitate NOVA and resume its suspended lessons within a month.

They warned the liquidation of NOVA would have a huge impact on society, noting students have paid a total of some 40 billion yen in advance tuition fees and that the amount of wages that it has failed to pay to employees, including instructors, amounts to about 4 billion yen.

The receivers told reporters that they cannot contact Nozomu Sahashi, the founder and sacked president of Osaka-based NOVA.

ＮＯＶＡ経営再建へ協力要請

経済産業省を訪れたのは、裁判所がＮＯＶＡの保全管理人として選んだ２人の弁護士です。保全管理人は、ＮＯＶＡに資金を提供するスポンサー企業の選定について「受講者の救­済のためにも手を貸していただきたい」と協力を求めました。これに対し、経済産業省の担当者も、受講者の混乱を抑えるためにＮＯＶＡの経営再建を急ぐ必要があるとして、行­政としてスポンサー企業の選定作業に協力する意向を伝えました。そのうえで、早期に授業を再開することや中途解約の申し出に対する受講料の返還など受講者の保護を徹底する­ようあらためて要請しました。保全管理人の１人は「教室の再開や同業者の協力を得るため一刻も早くスポンサーを見つけて条件を整えたい」と述べました。ＮＯＶＡは、ことし­７月末時点で４３９億円の負債を抱え、負債が資産を上回る債務超過の状態に陥っているだけに、今後、行政の協力を得て速やかにスポンサー企業を見つけることができるかどう­かが経営再建の鍵となります。

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News & Politics

Tags:

• Nova
• Japan
• METI
• receivers

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