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Over 120 Romanian agricultural companies file for insolvency in 2024
At least 123 agricultural companies in Romania have filed for insolvency so far in 2024, and their number will increase significantly in 2025, according to business restructuring and financing specialists.
According to them, we will witness major imbalances in the agricultural industry in 2025 due to an expected surge in the number of companies that will no longer be able to pay their debt.
"Although the agricultural sector has been severely affected by the droughts, the economic consequences as a result of government and commercial moratoriums - which only suspended corporate debts, not written it off - are still not seen. On August 1, 2025, however, the ordinances will expire and all those who have benefited from the aid are in danger of insolvency. Therefore, we will witness a significant increase in the number of insolvencies in agriculture. This year, half of the companies with problems went straight into bankruptcy," according to Radu Tudor, senior partner Infinexa, a Romanian company specialised in restructuring and financing troubled companies.
According to Infinexa statistics, between January 1 and September 30, 2024, 123 applications for the opening of collective insolvency proceedings against companies in the agricultural sector were filed; 66 of them have already been taken up by the court and concern companies with assets of over EUR 300 million (EUR 193 million in fixed assets and EUR 112 million in current assets). Almost half of the companies whose applications were taken up went directly into bankruptcy, as. they had no chance to recover; 38 follows the general insolvency procedure and only one is reaching out for an agreement with creditors.
This year, the Romanian government has set up measures to protect companies in the agricultural sector amidst drought affecting crops. Emergency Ordinance (OUG) 4/2024 establishing temporary support measures for agricultural producers in order to manage the effects of the soil drought in the agricultural year October 2023 - September 2024 and as a result of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, will cease its effects on December 31, 2024, which is why a new piece of legislation was approved to supplement it, OUG 118/2024, which suspends the servicing of outstanding debts owed in 2024 to creditors, at the request of the agricultural producer debtor, until August 1, 2025.
Concomitantly, under OUG 120/2024, the Romanian government has established a state aid scheme in the form of a grant in the amount of RON 1,000 ha for agricultural producers who established agricultural crops in the autumn of 2023 and/or in the spring of 2024 whose damage is assessed in reports for areas larger than 30% and up to 100%, with an unspecified expiry date.
"In order to avoid major financial imbalances, companies that qualified for government moratoriums could, until their expiry, maximise their efforts to stabilise the current commercial activity, that is prioritise the current debt situation; as for the debts of 2023-2024, the recommendation is to start informal negotiations with creditors now, in order to fit all these amounts into a future collective recovery procedure, which, properly planned, could be written down as costs in the budgets of the following years," says Radu Tudor.
Infinexa is a Romanian entrepreneurial company specialising in restructuring and financing distressed companies. Established in 2022, it manages assets worth over EUR 150 million, judicially manages companies such as Blue Air, Hidroconstructia, Angst, HP Tower (Infinexa Restructuring) and offers customised financing services to companies in need of capital (Infinexa Finance).