Romania has to recover EUR 38mn from state-owned, insolvent Blue Air

The Romanian state has to recover RON 190mn (EUR 38mn) from insolvent Blue Air, including the interest paid on principal debt, calculated as of now according to the Ministry of Finance quoted by Economica. However, it is not clear exactly how since it is the airline’s owner as well.

The European Commission (EC) said on February 16 that Romania must recover from Blue Air illegal state aid amounting to roughly EUR 33.84mn (RON 163.8mn), as the restructuring plan failed to restore the airline’s long-term viability and is therefore incompatible with EU state aid rules.

The state aid that must be recovered bears interest until it is fully recovered, the Finance Ministry said, meaning that further interest will be added.

The state has already nationalized the company after, in November 2022, got 75% in Blue Air in exchange for EUR 60mn, including a EUR 28mn COVID-19 aid and the EUR 34mn rescue loan attached to the restructuring plan – both extended by state-owned bank EximBank in August 2020 with the European Commission’s permit and guaranteed by the government.

Insolvency experts consulted by FinanciaIntelligence argued that in case the state can not recover the money from Blue Air (which is more than obvious), it could try to recover it from the company’s “shareholders and managers” – without indicating whether they refer to most recent shareholders (not very likely since they already met their obligations when giving up the shares) or the new shareholders (the state through its institutions).

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