RAPID FIRE DISASTER "Romcab" has lost 217 million lei in the last three months of 2016

Cable maker "Romcab", which filed for insolvency on February 10th, yesterday posted a loss of 178.23 million lei in 2016, compared to a net profit of 42.13 million lei in 2015, as, on September 30, 2016, it had a net profit of 39.6 million lei.

In other words, in just three months, 217 million lei have vanished from the company.

As operating revenues only increased 20% last year, to 1.01 billion lei, expenses rose 55%, 429 million respectively, over 2015, to 1.2 billion lei. On December 31st, expenses with raw materials and consumables reached 830.54 million lei, up 84% over the previous year, and 357 million lei over the numbers reported at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The total debts of the company have reached 925 million lei, at the end of last year, increasing 164 million lei compared to 2015.

In the beginning of the year, MCAB stock started going downhill, after information about the occurrence of defaults incidents concerning promissory notes unpaid by Romcab. Their amounts stand at 103 million lei.

The company initially informed the Bucharest Stock Exchange that it had a temporary problem and that it has taken every necessary step to overcome it. At the end of January, the MCAB shareholders approved a bonds issue of 200 million Euros, but on February 10th, the company filed for insolvency, with the trial to be heard on February 20th.

Meanwhile, several creditors have asked for the insolvency of "Romcab", such as: Unicredit Leasing Fleet Management, Unicredit Leasing Corporation IFN, International Investment Bank, Societatea Elbi & Lighting SRL, Societatea Charter Trans Air Agency, Societatea Inotal Aliminiumfeldolgozo Zrt.

According to some sources, based on the documents filed with the court, RTZ & Partners SPRL has been proposed as special administrator.

"BURSA" yesterday reported that the majority stake of 69.02% in "Romcab", owned by "Sadalbari", was pledged to "Stareal Limited" of Cyprus, on February 6th, 2017, four days before the cable maker of Târgu Mureş filed for insolvency, according to the Electronic Archive for Secured Transactions.

Moreover, on January 27th, Zoltan Prosszer assigned to Roxana Tarcă (the representative of the investor relations department of Romcab) 35 of the 45 shares owned in "Sadalbari". This increased Roxana Tarcă's stake in "Sadalbari" to 46.7%, while Zoltan Prosszer was only left with 9.35%. The "Sadalbari" shareholder structure includes Rodica Dochiţoiu (with 37.38%) and Amberyce Limited (with 6.54%), according to data from the Official Gazette.

Several banks have exposure to Romcab, as the loans were guaranteed with inventory and machinery. In the market there is talk about the fact that EximBank allegedly accepted the inventory as collateral, based on an evaluation made by an independent company. Market sources are also saying that when the officials of the bank wanted to check the inventory, they found it didn't exist, which even led to a criminal complaint being filed against the evaluator.

In 2015, International Investment Bank (IIB) - a multilateral development bank granted the cable maker a 3-year 15 million Euros loan, to finance its main activities, especially for the acquisition of raw materials from various producers, including from other countries that are members of the bank.

Romcab creditors also include Banca Transilvania, CEC Bank, Banca Feroviara and BCR.

MCAB shares also fell 15% yesterday, to 2.21 lei/share, posting a loss of-66.5%, over the last month.