ELCEN is analyzing all the legal options for the recovery of the debts owed to it by the Municipal thermal energy company Termoenergetica, including the formulation of a request for the opening of the insolvency procedure, the company announced. In this scenario, ELCEN will also request the liability of the municipal company management.

ELCEN’s intention comes as a result of the fact that the Bucharest City Hall (PMB) did not transfer to Termoenergetica the subsidy related to the period December 2019 – May 2020, amounting to 652.22 million lei.

Failure to pay the subsidy created major financial problems for ELCEN. The debts accumulated by Termoenergetica towards ELCEN reached, on 12.07.2020, 422.1 million lei. The amount represents the equivalent value of the invoices not paid by the municipal company, to ELCEN, during February-May 2020. As a result of this situation, ELCEN ended up accumulating, in its turn, a debt of 200 million lei to the natural gas supplier and to the auxiliary service providers.

Currently, ELCEN is in the imminent situation of registering a negative cash flow, which will lead to the impossibility of paying the bills issued by the natural gas supplier. In this context, ELCEN has already received a notification on the possible cessation of the supply of natural gas, in case of non-payment of financial obligations.

If this situation is reached, ELCEN will no longer be able to produce the thermal energy necessary for the supply, by Termoenergetica, of hot water and heat in Bucharest.

“The current situation shows that Termoenergetica took from RADET not only the same management team that bankrupted RADET, but also the management model, which we see implemented in the same disastrous way at the new company,” said Ovidiu Neacșu, founding partner Sierra Quadrant, the judicial administrator of ELCEN.

“Buying goods without paying for them, knowing that nothing happens to you, is a strategy that, unfortunately, will further accentuate the crisis in the district heating system in Bucharest. Unfortunately, the people of Bucharest and the other institutions connected to the network will suffer, which, although they pay their bills on time, may not receive hot water and heat. We call for responsibility, for identifying solutions that will unblock this serious financial situation and that will ensure the premises for the preparation of the winter season, especially since the situation of the supply infrastructure of the heating agent is critical,” Ovidiu Neacșu also said.