Private cemetery - a real genuine for end users

“Sfintii Mihail si Gavril” (Saints Michael and Gabriel) private cemetery, whose land was pledged as collateral for a ROL and foreign currency denominated loan from the late Bankcoop a few years ago, is now looking for a new owner. It is to be auctioned off, as part of an enforcement procedure.

The first attempt will be made at the Buftea Town Court today. The 36,200-sqm asset has a starting price of 12,940,000,000 lei (about $400,000).

For the time being, lawyer Arin Stanescu, who runs Reconversie si Valorificare Active (Assets Reconversion and Capitalisation) SA Company, one of Bankcoop’s liquidators, is rather sceptical about the chances of this unusual asset to find a buyer at the first attempt.

With a certain touch of humour, Stanescu is wondering what kind of rich person would like to invest in a “green rest-in-peace” place. The cemetery opened in 1997 and 82 people have been buried there ever since. Another 450 burial spots have been purchased by people who want to be ready, just in case (prices detailed in page 2).

Such an investment would rather be possible to make by Bucharest City Hall or the Romanian Orthodox Church. Arin Stanescu says he has talked with City Hall and Romanian Patriarchate officials and hopes for a positive response from the former, although there is no concrete answer yet. He thinks accepting a cemetery land as collateral for a banking loan was absurd.

As compared with the price asked now, the collateral value of the cemetery seems too high. In 1996, T&T Company pledged the field for a 17bn lei and $2.3 million credit, aimed at the construction of a human cemetery and a plastic factory.

The guarantee value of the field at the time was 3.05bn lei (about $3 million).

The cemetery administrator Adrian Kreutz says no natural person could possibly afford to buy it, due to the price and the fact that such an investment is slow in making profit.

Bucharest has been faced with a shortage of burial spots for quite a while now. Back in 1990-1993, the Cemetery Administration ceded 36,500 burial spots for 25 years, which was way too much for the actual capacity of the existing cemeteries.

By 1995, Bucharest had only 13,800 burial spots available, against an annual average of 11,500 interments. Two years ago, the City Hall had only 5,000 burial spots, distributed over 14 graveyards, against 3,000 interment requests every year.

Legislation binds the local administration in Bucharest to have a 12,000 burial-spot reserve, in the event of a disaster.