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Fina: 114 companies seek pre-bankruptcy settlement

Fina has so far received a total of 114 proposals from companies to initiate pre-bankruptcy settlement procedures, with the opening of the first procedures expected by the end of the year.

According to data from Fina’s website, five companies have been called to supplement their documentation, including the Split-based Konstruktor engineering.

Fina’s settlement councils have not yet started hearings in pre-bankruptcy settlement procedures, and so far five debtors – Konstruktor, Bizovačke toplice, Orbis holding and Fin-Art from Zagreb, and Delta Devet Iks from Buzet, have been called to complete their incomplete documentation in order for the procedure to be opened. The debts of these five companies amount to nearly 1.5 billion kuna, of which more than one billion kuna relates to Split’s Konstruktor engineering.

Konstruktor, which employs 1,121 workers, submitted its request on November 9, as it already met the conditions for initiating the procedure at the time the Law on Financial Operations and Pre-Bankruptcy Settlement came into force (October 1).

According to the conclusion of the settlement council, Konstruktor must submit a report on its financial status and operations, plans for financial and operational restructuring, a report from an authorized auditor, a list of its assets and rights, a statement that the conclusion of the pre-bankruptcy settlement will not affect the claims of workers, a description of negotiations with creditors, and notifications sent to creditors within 40 days.

Some of this documentation is also missing for the initiation of the pre-bankruptcy settlement procedure for the remaining four companies.

In terms of the amount of debt, after Konstruktor, Orbis holding follows with a debt of 170.7 million kuna, while Fin-Art owes 150 million kuna.

Bizovačke toplice entered the pre-bankruptcy settlement procedure due to a debt of 117.4 million kuna, and Delta Devet Iks due to 25.6 million kuna.

Fina has so far received a total of 114 proposals from companies to initiate pre-bankruptcy settlement procedures with a total of 5,418 employees, and their debts exceed 5.44 billion kuna.

Fina expects the first decisions on the opening of pre-bankruptcy settlement procedures by the end of the year.

These are procedures according to the provisions of the Law on Financial Operations and Pre-Bankruptcy Settlement, which mandate the initiation of pre-bankruptcy settlement procedures for illiquid or insolvent debtors, i.e., legal entities, craftsmen, or individual traders.

In the part of the procedure conducted at Fina, the settlement councils vote on the acceptance of the financial restructuring proposed by the debtor to the creditors, and if the creditors accept the proposed plan, the settlement itself is concluded before the competent commercial court.

Depending on the amount of debt, pre-bankruptcy settlement procedures can be conducted in regular and expedited procedures.

In the expedited procedure, which must be completed within 60 days from the opening, cases where companies owe less than one million kuna and employ fewer than 10 workers will be resolved, and so far, 65 of the total 114 requests have been submitted for the initiation of such procedures.

The remaining 45 requests relate to the initiation of regular procedures, which should be completed within 120 days from the opening, and these involve companies with larger debts and a larger number of employees.