World Trade Center ends 2005 in the red

World Trade Center (WTC) Bucharest, the company that owns the four-star Sofitel hotel last year made a 54.3 million RON (15 million euro) turnover, about 15% less than in 2004 and about 8 million RON in losses, the data WTC supplied to the Official Gazette quoted by Mediafax show. The company posted gross losses of 8 million RON (2.2 million euros), even though it had made 160 million RON (39.5 million euro) profit in the previous year. World Trade Center owned the Sofitel Hotel, the French Club and the French Village until last year. The latter two assets were transferred to the Bucharest Municipality, to pay its debt to the state. The company reported a 60 million euro debt to the State Assets Resolution Authority (AVAS) last year, which is one of the main shareholders (20%). World Trade Center Bucharest was incorporated in 1994 as a joint venture, in which the Romanian party held 55% and the remainder belonged to French companies. The largest stakes are those of AVAS, Bouygues Batiment and Debarth, each of which owning 20%. The French hotel chain Accor is a minority shareholder, which runs the Sofitel hotel under a management contract. Accor has recently finalised over 30 million euros in investment in its own hotel in the Capital, set to open under the Novotel brand next month.