“The hotel will be put up for sale for EUR20 million,” people close to the matter told Mediafax Tuesday.
“It’s too soon to talk about a prospective sale of the hotel, but the reorganization plan may state several measures to recover receivables, including asset sale, business transfer or conversion of debts into shares. A decision on the matter will be taken by creditors in the first quarter of next year,” Remus Borza, manager of Euro Insol, the court-appointed administrator of World Trade Center, told Mediafax.
World Trade Center registers debts of EUR90 million. Its largest creditors are investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) (with 85% of the entire sum) and the Bucharest Mayoralty.
Fondul Proprietatea took over the receivables from the country’s former privatization authority AVAS, which also took them over from the Finance Ministry. Back in 1991, the ministry guaranteed a loan WTCB contracted from two French banks and failed to pay it back.
The hotel has 188 rooms and 15 apartments. Until 2009, it operated under the Sofitel brand, part of group Accor, alongside Novotel, Pullman and Ibis.
Accor is present in 92 countries and operates 3,555 hotels. The Pullman chain includes over 80 hotels in Africa, South America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
Almost two decades ago, several Romanian and foreign funds invested about $100 million in a multipurpose compound, which included an office tower, a shopping center, a conference center and a hotel – Sofitel. World Trade Center Bucharest (WTCB) also included a residential compound in northern Bucharest.
In 2011, World Trade Center registered turnover of 39.8 million lei (EUR9.3 million) and loss of RON12.8 million, according to Finance Ministry data. Results for 2012 have not been made public. (EUR1=RON4.4447)