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• The deal was made through the Dutch vehicle of the company, which operates its Romanian hypermarkets
• The Belgians paid 54 million lei for 40,000 sqm (EUR 325/sqm)
Belgian group "Delhaize", which operates the "Cora" hypermarket chain in Romanian, yesterday acquired the assets located in the Civic Center of the city of Braşov, which previously belonged to "Hidromecanica".
The 40,000 sqm plot of land and the buildings located on top of it, was sold for 54,080,000 lei, (around EUR 13 million), with the auction being held by the "Medium-sized Taxpayers" division of the Braşov tax administration.
Lucian Voinescu, the head of the General Department of Public Finance of Braşov, says this is the largest foreclosure performed by the tax department of Braşov, with the auctioning off of the assets of "Romradiatoare" for six million Euros five years ago coming in second. Yesterday"s deal was concluded at a price of EUR 325/sqm, whereas before the crisis, land in the same area would sell for EUR 1,000/sqm.
"Provera Rom", which was involved in the transaction, is held by a Dutch company registered in Rotterdam, "Delparro" BV, managed by the same person that helms "România Hypermarche". Moreover, the Dutch vehicle "Delparro", has also acquired control of the "Cora" hypermarket business, a few months ago, from Belgian group "Delhaize", which has direct ownership of the "Profi" and "Mega Image" supermarket chains, as well as other real estate businesses in Cluj and Bucureşti.
The debts of "Hidromecanica" had increased 95.8% at the end of the 2009 fiscal year, to 122.522 million lei, mostly due to the fact the outstanding debt increased after the decree which stipulated that the interest and penalties would be cancelled provided the new owner would pay off the principal. Given the circumstances, even after the sale, the company will only be able to pay off half of its accumulated debt. Things would have been different had the company negotiated the sale on its own behalf, as it intended to do a few months ago.
The former general manager of the company, Lorant Biro, said at the time that the company was in talks with several real estate developers which were interested, but it seems the negotiations yielded no results.
• Losses of 52,000 lei per employee
Losses of "Hidromecanica" more than doubled last year, from 7.128 million lei to 14.874 million lei. The company"s turnover dropped drastically last year, from 21.922 million lei to 9.467 million lei, meaning that in 2009 the losses "Hidromecanica" Braşov exceeded its turnover.
The company"s revenues dropped 2.17 times, from 26,050 million lei to 11,933 million lei, whereas expenses only dropped 23%, from 33.18 million lei to 26.853 million lei. According to the company"s audit report, the average loss per employee increased three times, from 18,277 lei to 57,431 lei.
• Offer of composition
Braşov-based "Hidromecanica", maker of engines and turbines, has avoided the requests of its creditors which called for its insolvency, by requesting that the Court of Braşov approve its offer of composition. The composition procedure was opened by way of the ruling of the Court of Braşov of January 21st. The goal of this procedure is to "save the company, in order to allow it to continue its operations, protect the jobs of its employees and to allow it to pay back its debts".
All of the company"s debts will be rescheduled over 18 months, which is how long the reorganization plan is scheduled to take. Most of this debt is historic, and most of it became due again the moment the company could no longer afford to pay off some of its older debt. According to the contract, the penalties of the company would have been cancelled provided the majority shareholder paid off half of the company"s debts.
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