Court of Auditors has completed its investigation of "Nicolina" Iaşi

The Ia i Court of Auditors has finished its investigation of "Nicolina" Iaşi, and has submitted its findings to the Romanian Court of Auditors, Constantin Iaţco, the chairman of the institution said. The investigation concerns the company"s financial records for 2007, 2008 and for the elapsed period of 2009.

The Bucharest Court of Auditors will submit the report to the Chamber of Deputies, which will send it for review to the Parliamentary commission appointed to investigate the situation of Nicolina. Details on this investigation will not be made public before the commission draws up its report.

Nicolina" stopped its operations in April 2005. At the time the privatization contract was cancelled as well, and ownership of the stake held since 2002 by a consortium which includes the company"s union, the Association of the Company´s Employees and Mecanoexport reverted to the state. The company later entered a reorganization process.

In order to determine how the company came into its current situation, the Chamber of Deputies appointed a commission which will review the way the Authority for Recovery of State Assets handled the management of the company, in particular after its ownership reverted to the state.

Besides the investigation of the Parliament, the court designated receiver and the managers of Nicolina SA have filed a program for the restructuring of the company with the bankruptcy judge. According to this program, in the next two years, the company would sell off buildings, plots of land and equipment worth 47.6 million lei, in order to pay off the company"s 25 million in debt. The remaining funds would be used to resume production.

The scope of activity of Nicolina SA is the design, manufacturing and domestic and foreign distribution of equipment used in earthwork, constructions, road repair and maintenance, preparation and casting of cement concrete and of asphalt mixes, as well as metallic products. At this time, the main shareholders of the company - apart from AVAS, that owns 56.87% of the company"s share capital, are the Association of Employees (24.69%) and SIF II Moldova (15.88%), with the rest being held by individual and corporate investors.