According to market sources, the Turkish group bought the building, the land and all equipment from Valcea-based Fralvil SA, held by Romanian businessman Dan Mutu, say sources from the industry. Mutu, who also owns the EUR45 million Annabella store chain, had bought the Tnuva assets in an auction organized at the beginning of the year by Tnuva’s judicial liquidator.
The financial details of the deal are not yet fully clear, but the deal could be worth less than EUR10 million, considering that Capital Insol, Tnuva’s judicial liquidator, was not able last year to find investors interested in buying the plant for EUR10 million.
“Sutas is set to invest in restarting and modernizing the plant, with production estimated to start early 2014 at the latest, possibly sooner,” say the quoted sources.
The sale of Tnuva’s plant in Popesti-Leordeni, close to Bucharest, marks the end of the Israeli company’s adventure in Romania, which started in 2005 with a EUR55 million investment backed by banks, but ended in bankruptcy.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)