The first two stores to go were those in Oradea and Pitesti, the former to a Maltese group that planned to convert it into a logistics space and the latter to local investors.
PIC SA, a company held by brothers Ilie and Cornel Penescu went bankrupt in 2012, three years after filing for insolvency. The court-appointed liquidator PricewaterhouseCoopers has been trying to sell the assets of the company either as a bundle or piece by piece for five years. After several attempts, the most important of them, the five hypermarkets, have finally been sold.
PIC closed its five store network in 2009-2010, following insolvency due to EUR80 million debt to suppliers and lenders. The number of creditors at the time went up to more than 1,000. PIC SA then went bankrupt in 2012.
PIC’s best year was 2008 when sales stood at EUR155 million, and then revenue plunged in the first year of recession, causing the insolvency and then the hypermarket chain to go out of business. At the time, the group was one of the most powerful retailers competing with both local rivals – which went under, as well, and foreign giants. Meanwhile, both PIC and other Romanian retailers like Ethos and Univers’all left the market due to the crisis or the fast-paced expansion of foreign retailers. The market is now dominated by ten foreign retailers, with Kaufland in the lead, followed by Carrefour and Lidl. Back in its heyday, PIC got an offer of more than EUR100 million from Carrefour, but its owners turned it down.
In the years after the bankruptcy of the business, court-appointed liquidator PricewaterhouseCoopers tried to sell the assets either as a bundle or separately.
At some point businessman Nicolae Sarcina, owner of the Success retail chain (now insolvent, too) had shown interest in buying four of the five PICs for EUR20 million, but the deal fell through.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)