(source: Sme)
The state has bought the debt of the last creditor of construction company Váhostav which in 2015 launched restructuring proceedings.
A few months before the March 2016 general elections, the state announced it would buy the debt claims towards Váhostav from creditors. Though they were to receive only half of the amount, the state promised they would not wait for the money too many years. As it bought the last claim a few weeks ago, it compensated the last company that decided to use this possibility, the Hospodárske Noviny daily reported on August 22.
“The process of buying the claims is finished,” Peter Miššík, authorised representative of Slovenská Reštrukturalizačná company, which was established for this purpose, told the daily.
They bought claims worth a total of €26.5 million, and paid back €12.57 million to 467 small creditors of the construction company, Miššík added.
Those who did not accept the state’s offer now have to wait for the money directly from the company. It has already sent the first instalments to the accounts of its creditors, amounting to nearly €5 million. About €3.5 million of this sum went to unsecured creditors, i.e. small companies, Hospodárske Noviny wrote.
The whole restructuring process, however, is described as controversial.
“Though with this solution the state quickly helped the small unsecured creditors, who would otherwise wait for their money also for 10 years, it was first of all an ad hoc solution,” Ján Gajan, lawyer and partner of HMG Advisory law firm, told Hospodárske Noviny.
The way in which Váhostav’s debts were written off is not standard, neither in Slovakia nor abroad, he added.
