“The first steps taken are to establish the situation of the company, which includes debt status (liabilities of the company), identifying the assets of the company, the production capacity, all the goods it owns are useful to it or not in its day-to-day operations (…),” said Paul Dieter Cirlanaru, CEO of insolvency specialist CITR in a press conference in Constanta updating media on the progress of Damen Shipyards Mangalia’s insolvency case.
On June 19, 2024, the Constanta Court of Law approved the insolvency of the Damen Mangalia shipyards. Netherlands’ Damen filed for insolvency for the Damen Mangalia six years after having bought 49% in it and 692 of the 1,453 employees were furloughed.
“The good news is that the first contracts after the start of the insolvency have been signed, “ said Florian Constantin, CITR senior partner and project manager.
The shipyard that is part of an industry, which should be considered strategic for Romania, accumulated RON582 million (EUR120 million) losses in 2018-2022, public data show. The last year it was in the black was 2017, when the profit stood at RON158 million and the revenue at RON988 million (EUR200 milion). The number of employees that year stood at almost 2,000.
The debts of the shipyard amount to RON1 billion (EUR207 million), while the assets at RON1.26 billion, according to the books, with an assessment to follow.
“We are talking a big shipyard that can compete with the shipyards in Europe and Asia (…) We believe in the possibility for recovery, for securing funding for day-to-day operations and contracting new projects,” Florin Constantin added.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)