Large Romanian refinery’s industrial platform auctioned off

The industrial platform of the RAFO Onesti refinery, which re-entered insolvency last fall and has debts of over RON 330 million (EUR 71.2 million), will be put up for sale with an initial starting price of USD 59.5 million, VAT not included. It won’t be sold below the liquidation value of USD 29.7 million, without VAT, namely half of its market value, reports local Profit.ro. More than 90% of the total claims against RAFO Onesti belong to Petrochemical Holding, the company’s former majority stakeholder, a group registered in Austria and controlled by Russian investor Iakov Goldovski. The buyer will be obliged to keep the refinery running for at least five years. This is an important measure, because several plants in Romania have been bought only to be fully dismantled, especially in the ‘90s. If the company manages to sell its assets, creditors will be able to recover 57% of their claims. In the case of bankruptcy, the recovery rate would be only 34.3%. editor@romania-insider.com