I feel vaguely sorry for him in the way that I feel sorry for "Joe Smith & Sons, Plumbers since 1874 (well until last year when they went bust)". A family business, tradition and name is gone - this is undoubtedly bad.
However, if Joe Smith said to his punters "Arragh, sure don't worry about the payment end, I'll personally guarantee the money to you, sure what can go wrong ? You stand to make millions from this new plumbing yoke, it's all the rage and you can sell it on to 'norms' for a multiple of what I'm selling it to you for." I think this may colour my view of the loss of the family reputation.
Just like the home buyers who weren't forced to buy at inflated prices, he wasn't forced to give this personal guarantee. Since when was he the Bank of Bernard ?
At the end of the day, the whole money thing is a bit, erm, notional. He owes €60m. Give or take. On this deal. There could well be more. He doesn't have €60m, so he's not going to be able to pay it back. The people he owed it to - did they actually have €60m sitting in their back pocket looking for a perfectly good factory to buy and knock down ? No. Unless I'm mistaken they didn't have the readies sitting there. They were on a promise from the banks that they would get €60m if they could get this deal. They got the deal. They got the money. The banks went BOOOOOOOOOOOM and now you, me and the rest of the poor sods are the ones paying off that €60m bit by bit by bit.
So, no, not really, I don't feel unduly sorry for him or the people with the €60m on a promise.
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