CITR: 2021, the year of prevention in business. Companies must be prepared to anticipate changes and invest in solutions that would help them better manage the risks

Mihai-Alexandru Cristea 04/03/2021 | 12:36

According to CITR, the leader of the restructuring market in Romania, in 2021, companies that want to overcome the crisis and move to the next stage of development must be prepared to anticipate changes and invest in solutions that would help them better manage the risks. Although pressure on cashflow has fallen compared to the first quarters of the crisis, to 15% according to Confidex study, debts to the state budget continue to pile up.

 

After two years of economic growth and one year of pandemic, more than 7000 companies have debts over RON 1 million each, according to Termene.ro.  Their total value amounts to RON 73bn and 66% of them, i.e. 4,600, are in insolvency or bankruptcy, but haven’t resorted yet to a recovery procedure.

These 7000 companies ensure over 130,000 jobs that could be saved by accessing in a timely manner the preventive recovery measures or through a reorganization measure.

According to CITR restructuring specialists, “In 2021 companies must be willing to make deep changes in how they do business, redesign their strategies, change the markets where they operate, adapt their products and productions processes, review their expansion and development plans. At a time when the tendency is to streamline and reduce costs as much as possible, the winners will be those that will innovate, will invest in digitization and in the development of human resources capabilities and will be willing to resort to recovery mechanisms and act preventively..  Adaptability and the power to anticipate changes and manage risks are key to prevention for Romanian companies“, said Andra Olar-Caragea, CEO of CITR..

2,600 of companies with debts to the state budget are companies that can still act preventively to recover the activity and can resort to the GO6 procedure, especially created by ANAF to stagger the main debts and erase debts and penalties related to these debts to the state budget.

“We are at a turning point, which will determine the evolution of the business environment for the following years, and debts can be an impediment for the development of companies, which can be eliminated by accessing the GO 6 procedure. Companies can choose whether to act from limitations and constraints that come with them in the following years, and here we refer to debts to the state budget, or choose to access a preventive restructuring measure that would diminish this burden and help them prevent insolvency.  A company that has escaped the burden of debts can adapt better to changes that occur in the business environment, is more flexible and more agile, better prepared for the future, no matter how unpredictable”, pointed out Vasile Godîncă-Herlea, Head of Business Development Impetum Group and Managing Partner CITR.

By accessing GO6, companies can recover with the help of a budgetary debts reorganization plan, which can mean the staggering of main debts to the state budget and reduction by up to 50% of the main debt, but also erasing interests and penalties owed on December 31, 2020. Another important advantage is keeping control over the company, the management right not being lifted in this procedure. At the same time, with the submission of the recovery plan, budgetary enforcement is suspended, companies benefiting from more freedom in decisions.

Under GO6, the company can decide to stagger the main budgetary debts for a period of up to 10 years and the restructuring plan can be adjusted at any moment during implementation. The flexibility of GO 6 allows that the procedure takes place with other recovery measures, such as arrangements with creditors, through which other types of debts are also restructured. Moreover, the procedure is confidential and takes place out of court.).

With the application of the restructuring plan under GO6, the company not only escapes budgetary debts, but it also becomes eligible for accessing loans and even more, it becomes interesting including for investors. Moreover, it has again access to public tenders, which helps it re-become an active contributor to the economic environment.

Part of the success of implementation of this solution is also the choice of the implementing expert, who will be able to maximize the potential of applying the procedure if he/she has previous experience in designing a restructuring plan and applying the creditor test.

Accessing the GO6 procedure starts by notifying ANAF and preparing the documents for the restructuring plan. The next step is to choose the appropriate implementing expert, ideally with experience in the recovery of companies, who will start the private creditor test, completing the process for ANAF approval. The financial statement is reported on a quarterly basis and at the end of the period agreed in the implementation plan it is completed by reducing the budgetary debts. After verifying the eligibility for the GO 6 procedure, companies have one month available, until March 31, 2021, to resort to debt restructuring through this legislative provision.

GO 6 gives companies the chance to re-become active partners of the business environment, keeping their right to participate in any procurement procedure or public tender. In the following period, the legislative framework on recovery will be supplemented by the implementation in Romania of the European Directives no. 2019/1023, which will bring improved procedures for companies in difficulty.

Some of the major Romanian companies undergoing restructuring under GO6 are ROMAERO and CFR IRLU, in the case of which CITR specialists have applied a mix of instruments already validated in the 20 years of experience. According to CITR, solutions applied in these two procedures are a viable solution that can be replicated at the level of the entire Romanian business environment.

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