No buyers for $2.2bn receivables

Romania has to recoup receivables worth more than 2.2 billion dollars, registered before 1989, and one solution is to sell the property right, the head of the Foreign Trade and International Co-operation Department within the Foreign Affairs Ministry, State Secretary Cristian Colteanu, maintained.

Due to the low liquidity of the respective receivables, few banks and specialised companies are interested to purchase them and offer about 30% of the amounts Romania is to recoup. This percentage dissatisfies Colteanu.

The total value of the receivables and of the due interest rates amount to 2.184 billion dollars. A sum of 912.8 million roubles derived from trade and economic co-operation activities performed under international agreements concluded before December 31, 1989 adds to Romania’s receivables.

Iraq tops the list of countries indebted to Romania, with about 1.7 billion dollars, followed by Sudan, Syria, Mozambique, Libya, Angola, Guinea, Cuba, North Korea and Mongolia.

The former foreign trade companies are to recoup 13.72 million dollars derived from contracts performed under uninsured commercial credits. This amount should be recouped from the Democratic Republic of Congo (the former Zaire), the Central African Republic, Somalia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Cristian Colteanu says that Romanian authorities intend to make headway in recouping the receivables under an intensive programme planned for this year. One solution is the attempt to sell the respective receivables on the secondary market where Romania is looking for property takeover offers.

This market value was estimated to have been worth 5 billion dollars last year. Cristian Colteanu says that the value of the offers received so far was between 2.5 and 30% of the receivables’ actual value and, consequently, none of them was accepted.

Another choice would be debt for equity swap applied to the companies coming from the indebted countries and establishing joint ventures.