Update: 25/04/2024 09:18
Issued by: 25/04/2024, 09:18
Ostrava – The appointed notary confirmed that the necessary majority of authorized creditors of Liberty Ostrava officially approved its restructuring plan. It was announced today by Liberty, which already announced last week that the plan was approved by the vast majority of creditors. The results must be confirmed by the court. Environment Minister Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL) said on Wednesday that he does not expect the ministry to grant Liberty the free emission allowances the company is counting on in its restructuring plan in the coming days.
Liberty said 92.72 percent of the total votes were in favor of the restructuring plan, against 1.67 percent. Creditors also voted to exclude Tameh Czech, which supplied energy to the smelter, from voting on the restructuring plan. 86.65 percent were for them, against 5.64 percent. Tameh describes himself as the smelter’s biggest creditor. Its spokesman, Patrik Schober, has previously stated that the company will object to Liberty’s restructuring plan in court.
Liberty said the notarization is another major milestone it has reached. “It underlines Liberty’s commitment to ensure a sustainable future for the company. Liberty Ostrava has now submitted the notarized result of the vote to the Regional Court in Ostrava so that it can make a final decision on the restructuring plan,” the company said. The spokesman of the Ostrava Regional Court, Igor Krajdl, has already said that the president of the senate will decide within a reasonable period of time, corresponding to the need to study the materials, after comprehensively assessing them.
Liberty has approximately 1,300 creditors protected by a court-ordered moratorium. The firm said today that 1,049 creditors took part in the vote. “Related creditors, creditors who are in dispute with Liberty, such as Tameh Czech, and creditors, such as EGAP, with whom a repayment schedule was already agreed upon before the announcement of the general moratorium, were excluded,” Liberty said.
Liberty Ostrava, which produces steel mainly for the construction, engineering and petrochemical industries, has around 5,000 employees. However, it has had trouble paying its obligations for a long time, and most of their operations have been standing still since last December, when Tameh stopped its energy supply. Most of the employees of both companies have been at home since December.
Tameh Czech states that the smelter owes him approximately 2.2 billion crowns. In December, he ended up in bankruptcy, which he justified by the fact that the smelter, his only customer, did not pay him. Last week, the court confirmed the resolution of the creditors’ meeting, which approved Tameha’s reorganization.
Liberty’s restructuring plan has two variants: in variant A, Liberty agrees with Tameh, plan B envisages a solution without Tameh. Liberty states that in option A, it would start the blast furnace, which has been in a so-called warm slump for months, in the summer and repay creditors’ claims by spring 2026. In the case of option B, it would have energy supplies from other suppliers and from a new energy complex, the company would furnace launched at the turn of 2024 and 2025 and paid off creditors’ claims by the end of 2025. Liberty stated that at the end of February it recorded total liabilities of approximately 16.4 billion crowns.
