Bulgaria has officially given the green light to the liquidation of the country's largest steelmaker Kremikovtzi, following the numerous unsuccessful attempts of the mill's creditors and the government to reach an agreement on a plan to save the mill, Sofia News Agency has reported citing the Kremikovtzi administration.
"The decision to declare Kremikovtzi bankrupt was taken on May 31. It is still not clear how the sale of its assets will proceed. No investors have declared interest so far," Kremikovtzi administrator Tsvetan Bankov said.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, at the beginning of November 2009 Bulgarian government ministers made it clear that Kremikovtzi would most likely be liquidated, since 80 percent of its creditors had disapproved the action plan to save the steelmaker.
Kremikovtzi was declared insolvent in August 2008. In September last year, the mill's assets were valued at a market price of BGN 837.2 million ($526 million), while their liquidation value was estimated at BGN 662.7 million ($416 million). However, Kremikovtzi's total debt amounts to BGN 1.9 billion (about $1.2 billion) and it is obvious that creditors will not be able to recoup 100 percent of what they are owed.