The sale of "Moldomin" - blocked by the National Tax Administration Agency

The sale of the mines of SC "Moldomin" SA was blocked by the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), Sorin Găman, managing director in the Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Business Environment (MECMA) said yesterday, at a mining conference, organized by "Focus Energetic".

He said: "The assets of < Moldomin > are being auction off by the liquidator, in order to allow the mines to continue operation. However, the ANAF has blocked the liquidation. We"ll see what happens when the process is allowed to resume".

The officials of the ANAF said that S.C. "Moldomin" is currently in insolvency proceedings "in simplified form (bankruptcy)", and stressed that the ANAF is also a creditor of the company.

"As for the ANAF blocking the two final bids, it bears mentioning that as part of the liquidation procedure launched by the court appointed liquidator in the case no. 2518/115/2010, the bankruptcy judge, through the decision issued on September 1st, 2011, < temporarily suspended the procedure for the sale of the assets of S.C. < Moldomin" S.A. until a ruling on the request to annul the same procedure will have been issued", the officials of the ANAF said.

At the end of July, the two final bids of the remaining two buyers were opened, Moldova Nouă, after, in the beginning, three companies had submitted bids to buy the mines, which are located in Moldova Noua. According to Răzvan Zăvăleanu, managing partner at "RTZ & Partners", the liquidator of "Moldomin", one of the companies didn"t make it to the bid opening stage, since the brief it submitted did not include all the mandatory elements, meaning that the application was rejected even in the verification stage.

Nine tender books for the privatization of "Moldomin" were bought.

The mines, which have copper reserves worth an estimated 1 billion Euros will be sold together with their mining licenses. The company owes about 50 million Euros, mostly to the state budget.

ANAF, the main creditor, has begun the bankruptcy proceedings for Moldomin.