Novkabel Novi Sad debt-free since late 2017 – Commercial Court of Appeal rejects creditors' complaints

The Pre-Packaged Reorganization Plan at Novkabel has been successfully completed. This formerly state-owned Novi Sad-based cable producer is now owned by the creditors, is debt-free and can continue operating without obstacle, Zoran Stanojevic, director of Novkabel, explains.

Stanojevic says that the Commercial Court of Appeal in Belgrade rejected all the claims by the creditors and that Novkabel was handed a decision confirming the completion of this process in late December.

– The biggest creditors, the company Yu Point, a part of East Point, which owns 86% of the company, is now the formal majority owner of Novkabel – Stanojevic specified. – Other creditors have also converted their claims into ownership shares, so we have been debt-free since the end of 2017, and it is up to the new owners to decide what to do with the factory.

Stanojevic reminds that the situation in the company was very hard at the time he took over the management of it as a representative of state bodies. Even so, the production continued and the company persevered.

– I entered the factory which was facing bankruptcy in three days and hardly anyone believed that it could survive, as the debts amounted to EUR 56 million, whereas the factory's property had been estimated at EUR 38 million – Stanojevic notes.

– Through great effort, primarily that of the workers who stayed in the factory and of whom there are now 296, we have managed to do the impossible. We've maintained the production, managed to handle regular costs, but also regularly paid the salaries, which equal RSD 44,000 on average.

– I believe that this will be overcome as well and that the new owners will reach the decision to continue the production – Stanojevic is clear. – According to our calculations, we need an investment of around EUR 9 million, which would be used for the purchase of processed materials and a simplification and modernization of the production and enable us to offer our high-quality cables to the western European market. I therefore believe that the factory has a future.

Extra space

Novkabel owns around 32 hectares of building land with infrastructure in the industrial zone of Novi Sad. The halls take up around 120,000 square meters, and there's also the former management building with 11 floors.

– We are currently using around a fifth of the space, so it would be most valuable for the company if we could sell of lease it – Stanojevic says. – Its maintenance is a great expense for us, and the lessees did not opt to do business with us while we were in the process of reorganization. Now that this obstacle has been removed, I believe that the halls will no longer be empty.

Novkabel doo Novi Sad

East Point d.o.o. Beograd

Yu Point d.o.o. Beograd

East Point Holdings Kipar

Privredni apelacioni sud

PPRP Novkabel

Zoran Stanojevic

Novkabel reorganization

production of cables

cables

sale of building land in Novi Sad

building land Novi Sad