"Realitatea" enters insolvency to shake off Sebastian Ghiţă

Elan Schwartzenberg has requested the insolvency of Realitatea Media, which owns the broadcasting license for Realitatea TV. The businessman repeatedly expressed his discontent over the financial situation of the Realitatea group, which it took over from the children of Sorin Ovidiu Vîntu in April this year. According to information obtained from the Court of Bucharest, the request to enter insolvency was made last week, on September 2nd, and will be examined by the court on September 7th. The request could seem strange, to say the least, especially since the ratings of the TV station have been constantly rising as of late: in July and August it clearly beat its main competitor, Antena 3, in terms of the average daily number of viewers. Realitatea TV is managed by Asesoft, a company lead by Sebastian Ghiţă, who made the commitment to invest 75 million Euros in Realitatea TV over the next five years. This could very well be the answer to the riddle: filing for insolvency could very well be the first step towards removing the news channel from under the management of the company owned by Sebastian Ghiţă. Normally, after accepting the request to enter insolvency, the judge would appoint a new administrator. Once entering insolvency, a company is under the protection of the court, interest and penalties are frozen, debts can no longer increase, and at least theoretically employees must be kept in order to rescue the company. Companies that enter insolvency have high chances of avoiding bankruptcy, and things usually go back to normal afterwards. According to the law, wages must be paid before any other obligations of the employer, and in the event of bankruptcy, employees are privileged creditors, and their rights represent privileged claims, and must be paid in full, before the claims of any other creditors. According to data from the Ministry of Public Finance, Realitatea Media, which holds the licenses for Realitatea TV, The Money Channel, Realitatea FM and Radio Guerrilla, had a turnover of 23.1 million Euros in 2010, losses of 20 million Euros and 73 million Euros in debts.