AFTER ALMOST BEING FORECLOSED ON IN 2012 "Broadhurst" wants to sell the "Cocor" store

The shareholders of "Cocor" SA (COCR) are being summoned, on May 23rd, to decide on the sale of the "Cocor" store, at the request of "Broadhurst Investments Limited", according to a press release sent to the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

The shareholders are also going to discuss contracting the services of a specialized company to provide consulting services concerning the sale. "Broadhurst Investments Limited" holds 13.39% of the shares of COCR.

At the end of last year, the "Cocor" retail center has announced that it has been sued by Sorin Nicolae Ion Papadat, who has raised a claim over the plot of land underneath the parking of the store.

Last year, the company posted a net profit of 1.02 million lei, up 15.9% over 2014, on the back of a turnover of 12.85 million lei, down 1.68% over the previous year.

At the end of last year, the company had outstanding loans amounting to 12.5 million Euros, from BCR, according to the annual report. Cocor and BCR have agreed, in February, to extend the loan agreement, according to the quoted report.

A few years ago, the Cocor store underwent an overhaul, which involved a 24.5 million Euros investment, according to the memorandum for the listing of the company on the alternative trading system, following the elimination of the Rasdaq.

The store was shut down on May 1st, 2008 to begin the demolition, expansion, reinforcement and modernization and has been reopened in the beginning of October 2010. Aside from the seismic reinforcement, the overhaul works have also involved increasing the built area from 14,500 square meters to 27,000 square meters, while the leasable surface increased from 6,000 sqm to 9,700 sqm meters.

However, in 2012, Cocor was about to be foreclosed by BCR. At the time, the bank was planning to auction off the store, for a starting price of 134.9 million lei (approximately 30 million Euros).

Later, BCR approved the suspension of the foreclosure of Cocor and rescheduled the company's debt, which still had to pay 16 million Euros out of the loan of 19 million Euros it had taken out from BCR.

According to the quoted memorandum, "Cocor" had a development plan for the next two years which concerned mostly increasing the occupancy rate of the center to at least 90%, which would lead to an increase in the traffic and visibility of the Cocor Retail Center among the public. "Currently, Cocor SA is in negotiations with important operators in the market to have them rent significant surfaces in the Cocor Commercial Center, as well as to develop a strategy for the media façade, which would increase revenues in this sector, by at least 30%", according to the document published in June 2015.

The company's officials were expecting revenues of 420,000 Euros from advertising on the media façade last year, and for this year the forecast has been raised to 500,000 Euros. "Cocor" is controlled by the Broadhurst Investments fund (13.32%), SIF Transilvania (10.24%), SIF Muntenia (10%), Daniel Stoica (14.66%), Liviu Ursan (14.83%).