State – owned tea producer Plafar exits insolvency

Newsroom 28/06/2012 | 09:39

The Bucharest Court has approved the request filed by tea producer SN Plafar to exit insolvency after the company has managed to pay all of its debts (at nominal value), announced the company’s judicial administrator, Assistance Insolv, part of Borza & Asociatii.

Plafar entered insolvency in 2009 at the request of its main shareholder, the Ministry of Economy, for debts worth RON 5.1 million (approximately EUR 1.2 million). A year later, the company’s creditors approved the reorganization plan proposed by the judicial administrator.

“Plafar’s reorganization plan is a first in Romania because in 17 years since we have the insolvency law, it is the first plan which has enabled the full payment of the debts at nominal value. In addition to this performance, the reorganization plan has also made it possible to make investments worth more than RON 5 million in upgrading the company’s production facilities, the rebranding of the entire product portfolio and entering all the national distribution networks,” said Nicoleta Munteanu, representative of the judicial administrator.

The Romanian state owns some 51 percent of Plafar and the rest is owned by Fondul Proprietatea. Representatives of the Ministry of Economy have previously announced that following the exit from insolvency, Plafar will be privatized.

The Plafar business grew from RON 6.1 million (approximately EUR 1.4 million) in 2010 to RON 7.3 million (approximately EUR 1.7 million) last year. In 2011 the company also posted profit for the first time in more than 16 years, according to the judicial administrator.