A new failure in attempting to sell Oltchim: no binding offer submitted for taking over the chemical plant

The extended deadline for submitting a biding offer for taking over the stake Oltchim S.A owns in Oltchim SPV S.R.L which expired on June 6 has not brought any investor, although there were some who purchased the Presentation file, states a press release of the Ministry of Economy which controls the company.

In December 2013, there was elaborated the reorganization strategy of Oltchim on the basis of which a new trading company – Oltchim SPV S.R.L. - was established. Subsequently, all the shares Oltchim S.A owns in the new company were put up for sale, the benchmark value of the assets transferred to Oltchim SPV exceeding 305 million euro. Initially, the deadline for submitting binding offers for acquiring those shares was January 31, 2014, later postponed by March 28, 2014. Eventually there was a second extension of the deadline – by last Friday, June 6, which was called by the potential investors, as the judicial administrators then announced.

Hence, according to the Ministry, the same situation happened this last time, as the judicial administrators RomInsolv SPRL și BDO Business Restructuring managing the company while insolvent, have been asked for a further delay for sending the required binding offers. So, the creditors of Oltchim will be convened so as to approve the resumption of the procedure and a new deadline for submitting tenders.

Oltchim, which is a state-owned company, has been insolvent since January 30, 2013, the Romanian authorities seeking to eventually complete its privatization, after some unsuccessful attempts. The chemical enterprise halved its loss after one year of insolvency, from some 572 million lei in 2012 to about 285 million lei last year mainly due to a sharp reduction of the financial expenses, corroborated by a significant reduction of the operating expenses, as per the preliminary financial results provided by the Bucharest Stock Exchange.