EPH Enters Pre-Bankruptcy Settlement with a Realistic Restructuring Plan

Europapress Holding (EPH) has entered the pre-bankruptcy settlement process with a restructuring plan that we consider to be very realistic, and we believe that we will conclude this process to our mutual benefit in negotiations with creditors, said EPH media director Tomislav Wruss today.

Wruss explains that at the first hearing in the pre-bankruptcy settlement process, held on Wednesday, the claims of external creditors against EPH were established at 30.7 million kuna, and the debt to banks was established at 416 million kuna.

“This means that, in fact, EPH’s debt to external creditors amounts to 446 million kuna,” said Wruss.

However, he adds that in the pre-bankruptcy settlement process, all entities are obliged to declare their claims, and thus the amount of mutual claims of companies within EPH has also been established.

“At the hearing, the amount of mutual claims of companies within EPH was established at 1.75 billion kuna, arising from guarantees, loans, and commercial activities of mutual advertising and printing services,” says Wruss.

The minutes from the hearing held on Wednesday in the pre-bankruptcy settlement process for EPH were published on the website of the Financial Agency (Fina), according to which the claims of creditors against EPH were established at nearly 1.8 billion kuna.

According to the data published in the minutes from the first hearing, the largest claims are held by creditors from EPH itself, primarily companies within that holding that are in the pre-bankruptcy settlement process, with 4 Media EPH claiming 396.17 million kuna from EPH, EPH Media 383.3 million, EPH Magazines 361.2 million kuna, Gloria Group 238.77 million kuna, and Media Nexus nearly 204 million kuna.

The Settlement Council opened the pre-bankruptcy settlement process for EPH at the end of July, and Wruss reminds that EPH has developed a financial restructuring plan that was presented to the Settlement Council and creditors and publicly published on the Fina website, and this week hearings also began for some companies within the Holding that requested the pre-bankruptcy settlement process.

“The restructuring plan, in a way, anticipates the further development of existing brands and the development of new digital products. This plan provides very realistic grounds for expectations that EPH will emerge from the financial crisis caused by indebtedness,” says Wruss.

He also notes that, thanks to the successful implementation of the restructuring plan, EPH recorded a result of 15.2 million kuna better than last year in the first seven months.