"A possible recovery of the company is out of question, next to impossible, considering the debts and the fact we have none of the assets we used to have," according to Catalin Tudose, the new managing director of Lactis SA - Iasi.
"All that is left consists of a few old machine tools and a pile of paper, as most of the archive has been sequestered by the fiscal authorities. We also have huge debts... more than 20 million lei to the State, some 600,000 to the local authorities, 200,000 lei to raw materials suppliers and 600,000 to utilities companies. Only 10,000 square meters of land of the initial 40,000 square meters is left. The rest was sold piece by piece," he added.
The company was privatized in 1996, but the State Assets Recovery Authority regained control in April, following several litigations with the employees to whom the company had been sold. Lactis concluded 2006 with a turnover of 2,751,258 RON (half of the Y2005 turnover) and losses of 12,708,928 RON, up 60 times year-on-year.