RSS
Administrator picks 3 firms to buy assets of Romania's insolvent Oltchim
The judicial administrator of insolvent Romanian chemicals producer Oltchim [BSE:OLT] said on Wednesday it has selected three companies, to which it might sell the company's assets by the end of the week, seenews.com reads.
The three companies were selected from a total of nine which had submitted bids in the sale process, BDO Business Restructuring said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.
The companies with which Oltchim hopes to conclude sales contracts by the end of this week are: local chemicals producer Chimcomplex Borzesti [BSE:CHOB], PVC profiles and accessories distributor Dynamic Selling Group and investment fund White Tiger Wealth Management Ltd.
Discussions with other bidders are still ongoing and the completion of transactions under these contracts is subject to certain conditions to be met, according to the statement. The contracts need final approval by the general meeting of the company's creditors, who will also have the final say in the selection of the winning bidders.
Oltchim expects to finalize the sale process in the first half of 2018.
Chimcomplex was founded in 1954 as a state-owned chemicals producer and became a joint stock company in 1991.
Dynamic Selling Group bought in 2013 Oltchim's PVC processing unit Romplast for 7.75 million euro and is now one of the largest distributors of profiles and accessories for PVC joinery process in Romania.
White Tiger Wealth Management is an investment firm established in 2001. It has offices in England, the United States, San Marino and Hong Kong.
In July, Chimcomplex Borzesti submitted an offer to take over all assets of Oltchim. Romanian Commercial Services Group (SCR Group), who own Chimcomplex, should have become the direct guarantor of the transaction with over 120 million euro ($135 million), supported by four business partners - two Romanian, one from Turkey and one from Italy.
At the time, the biggest competitor to Chimcomplex for Oltchim's assets was German-Polish PCC group, which currently owns 32.3% of Oltchim.
Oltchim, which has been in insolvency since 2013, is the only producer of liquid caustic soda in Central Europe and the only producer of chlorine and polyether polyols in Romania. The company posted a 8.1 million euro gross profit in the six months through June, up 50% on the year, while turnover increased 27% on the year to 105.8 million euro.
In August 2016, the creditors of Oltchim agreed to extend the company's reorganisation period by one year. At the time, the company also launched the sale through auctions of all or part of its assets grouped into nine bundles. It hoped to find investors by the end of 2016 but the sale process stalled due to lack of interest.
However, in April 2017, the economy ministry (which is majority shareholder of Oltchim with a stake of 54.8%) and creditors decided once again to offer the company's assets for sale bundled in nine packages with a total market value of 294 million euro, with the starting price set at 307 million euro.
Oltchim has made several unsuccessful attempts to sell its assets in the past. In 2014, it failed two times to attract binding bids for the sale of Oltchim SPV, a special purpose vehicle that comprised its core business.
Oltchim shares traded 2.32% lower at 0.3790 lei on the BVB at 1012 CET on Wednesday.
Chimcomplex shares last traded on October 3, when they changed hands 9.49% higher at 1.5 lei on the alternative segment of the BVB, AeRO.