Romanian special steel producer COS on the verge of bankruptcy

The Targoviste Special Steel Plant (COS) in Romania, the only producer of rebar in the country under insolvency procedures since 2013, will go bankrupt after the Damboviţa Court rejected the reorganization plan proposed by the creditor company Alphard Financial, Ziarul Financiar reported.

The ruling is not final. COS Targoviste is among the assets previously owned but abandoned by the Russian group Mechel.

The court rejected the exception of inadmissibility of the bankruptcy application, a request made by the electricity supplier, and ordered the commencement of the bankruptcy procedure, according to an announcement of the company published at Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB). The next deadline to continue the procedure is October 19.

COS Târgovişte announced that it would appeal against the sentence, including for the suspension of the execution of the syndic judge's decision until the appeal is resolved.

In June, the Assembly of Creditors voted to complete the reorganization plan to urgently start the procedure for the auctioning of COS functional assets.

The proposal was made by Alphard Financial, which owns 51% of COS's claims.

According to the report of the plant, the total value of debts is RON 524 mln (over EUR 100 mln). The core assets of COS Targoviste were valued at RON 302 million, according to the company's documents.

The company with about 1000 employees last year recorded revenues from sales of RON 44 mln (EUR 9 mln), compared to RON 590 mln in 2019, and ended with RON 62 mln loss, from a net profit of RON 140 mln a year earlier.

For comparison, in 2011, COS Târgovişte had a turnover of RON 1.1 bln but still posted RON 155 mln losses, employing at that time about 2,450.

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