Deal to save V&D in sight

The V&D crisis talks with the company's landlords continued last night. V&D wants the landlords to give them 6 months time to work on a new strategy, NOS reports based on the company's concept plans. The company also wants a rent discount of more than 50 percent for the next 6 months. In exchange for a possible rent reduction, the landlords want more control over the income of V&D and the right to rent out the best places in the store to other parties. They also want access to V&D's financial data, NOS reports. The landlords also want a guarantee that they will get the rent discount for the next 6 months back if V&D goes bankrupt within that period. V&D owner Sun Captial is willing to put in an amount of 60 million euros to realize the plans. About half of that amount would be a loan. The talks ended shortly before midnight last night and will resume this morning. All involved parties refused to comment on the state of affairs after the meeting last night. "The V&D stores will open as usual this morning, but a problem now threatens", said reporter Wessel de Jong, NOS reports. "There is still no agreement, so as of today there is no money to pay the suppliers." According to De Jong, Sun Capital is expected to join the negotiations around 15:00 this afternoon.