Court of Arad approves the filing for insolvency of Contor Group

The request of Arad-based maker of counters Contor Group to enter insolvency was approved by the Court of Arad. The request to enter insolvency was filed on April 19th, as a result of the contraction in the company"s business.

According to a Communiqué sent to the Bucharest Stock Exchange on Thursday, the court appointed a consortium made up of two companies of Arad (Solve Insolve IPURL and Expert SPRL) as official receiver.

In the conclusion no. 618/04.05.2011, the court decided to admit the request for the opening of the insolvency procedure made by SC Contor Group SA and to open said procedure while maintaining the right of administration of SC Contor Group, while allowing the company to continue to manage its business. The court has also ruled that the notification of the opening of the insolvency procedure of SC Contor Group, must be sent to the creditors of the company, to the Arad office of the Trade Registry, as well as to all the banks with which the company has open accounts, and also decreed that the insolvency notification must be published in a widely circulated newspaper and in the Insolvency Bulletin.

As a result of the approval of the filing for insolvency, the BSE halted trading on the shares of Contor Group.

The company"s creditors can submit their claims by July 13th, and the preliminary table of claims needs to be completed by September 21st at the latest.

The company"s financial state has caused its minority shareholders to decide at the end of last week to file a lawsuit against the majority shareholder, Tudor Caracioni, who is a president of the Board of Directors as well as a managing director. Through Contor Caracioni, Caracioni owns 61.45% of the shares of CGC. The group of minor shareholders includes Dutch funds Middle Europe Opportunity Fund III, MEI Roemenie en Bulgarje, Carcaradon, as well as SIF Banat-Crişana (SIF1) and brokerage firm IFB Finwest Arad.

In the time between the insolvency announcement and Thursday, the price of the shares of Contor Group fell almost 2.5 times, from 0.0599 lei to 0.024 lei. Calculated based on the latest price, the company"s capitalization is 4.6 million lei. Contor Group has a share capital of 19.3 million lei, divided into 193.8 million shares with a face value of 0.1 lei.