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Pandemie und Russland-Sanktionen belasten – Kein Insolvenzverfahren gegen Brodosplit

Bild: Brodosplit

Durch die Pandemie gestörte Lieferketten und Sanktionen gegen russische Banken und Oligarchen belasten weltweit auch die Schiffbauindustrie. Betroffen davon ist besonders auch die kroatische DIV-Gruppe, zu der neben der über einen Auftragsbestand in Mrd. Höhe verfügenden Brodosplit-Werft auch Schiffseigentums-, Management-, Reederei- und Kreuzfahrtvermarktungsgesellschaften gehören.

Spekulationen über eine Insolvenz der Werft oder ihrer Töchter oder Schiffe wie den weltgrößten Kreuzfahrtsegler Golden Horizon weist das Unternehmen jedoch zurück.

Wir haben um eine Stellungnahme gebeten. Darin heißt es wie folgt:

“Bankruptcy is not open against any of our companies, but to determine all the facts about whether all the conditions for bankruptcy of each company exist, appointed persons who do not manage the company as bankruptcy trustees but have only the task of determining the assets of each company. Only after that, the court will decide on the possible opening of bankruptcy based on the report of these persons for each company.

Some of our companies have a debt to the state in terms of taxes and contributions in the total amount of about 30 million kunas. We proposed to the state a settlement that would offset this debt with our claim from the state for unjustifiably executed public giving – a concession fee for the period before the privatization and takeover of Brodosplit.

According to the restructuring plan, we are not obliged to pay the old debts of the shipyard and the state confirmed to us in writing during the sales contract that there are no debts, and yet they executed us for the amount of about 24 million kunas with the interest of over 30 million kunas.

We have proposed a settlement where we waive the payment of the restructuring plan of HRK 121 million based on the write-off of public benefits during the restructuring, but at least we ask for the return of fully unjustifiably executed funds from the years before the takeover of Brodosplit, with interest to close the debt of our societies to the state, which we kept alive during the COVID crisis and preserved all jobs so far.

The shipyard currently employs about 600 workers, as we have continued to work on jobs where we have secured funding, namely four coastal patrol boats, a zero-emission sailboat with zero emissions, and an unfinished chemical tanker towed from Brodotrogir and for a foreign client will be completed in Brodosplit.”

Zu den Hintergründen stellte Tomislaw Debeljak, Präsident der DIV-Group und Chef der Brodosplit-Werft bereits vor einer Woche fest:

„We are affected by force majeure because of the war in Ukraine. Brodosplit is building two ships, financed by VTB Europe, a Russian-owned bank based in Frankfurt. Because VTB is owned by Russia, that bank is subject to restrictions, which were recently introduced or stopped due to the war in Ukraine. The situation we found ourselves in is extremely dramatic because VTB has stopped all further payments on all loans due to the situation in Ukraine, which has blocked us. We are currently seizing 60 million euros of our funds on these projects. Due to the size of the problem and urgency, we launched an initiative to the Government of the Republic of Croatia and HBOR (Croatian bank for reconstruction and development) to take over the loan amount to HBOR, because due to the involvement of the Russian side, no commercial bank can do it at the moment, for refinancing. Brodosplit would complete the ships, the state guarantee would be returned to the state and everyone would generate revenue.

This crisis in Ukraine and the problem with VTB happened at a time of extremely good prospects for Brodosplit shipyard. We have contracted several new projects worth around 270 million euros, including the construction of a polar cruiser and a luxury yacht, contracting military ships for export, and in the final phase are negotiations on the construction of two more yachts and a residential ship worth about a billion euros. we cannot speak publicly about individual values at this time. Clients of yacht construction are usually anonymous and ask for confidentiality in contracts. We currently have a problem because we have not yet received state guarantees, which is related to the situation with VTB Bank, so these contracts have not been strengthened for five months. We hope that the problem will be resolved soon – force majeure with VTB Bank and project financing, which would enable the continuation of project activities. Otherwise, the projects would fail, which would be detrimental to both Brodosplit and the Croatian economy.“

Nach einer Konferenz über den National Recovery and Resilence Plan (NPOO) hatte Kroatiens Wirtschaftsminister Tomislv Coric erklärt, dass die kroatische HBOR-Bank immer bereit sei, mit den Werften zu kooperieren, doch seien die derzeitigen Probleme bei Brodosplit wohl „etwas komplexer“ als in der Öffentlichkeit dargestellt wurde. „Die Lage des Schiffbaus in Split ist nicht einfach und sollte von verschiedenen Standpunkten aus betrachtet werden.“ Dennoch sei er optimistisch, dass der kroatische Schiffbau gute Chancen habe. JPM