January 4 (SeeNews) - The Commercial Court in Rijeka has launched a procedure for establishing the prerequisites for opening bankruptcy proceedings against Croatia's indebted shipyard 3 Maj, local media reported on Friday.
The court has appointed Zdravko Cupkovic as temporary bankruptcy manager as part of the procedure, private TV channel N1 reported.
A court hearing for the launch of bankruptcy proceedings is set for February 6.
Last week, the Commercial Court in Rijeka received the request of Croatia's Financial Agency to open bankruptcy proceedings against 3 Maj after the shipyard's bank account had been blocked for 120 days over debt of some 72 million kuna ($11.0 million/9.6 million euro), N1 said.
The 3 Maj shipyard is part of Croatia's indebted Uljanik shipbuilding group, which has been in financial trouble for some time due to the adverse effects of the global financial crisis on the shipbuilding sector in general which has led to a drop in orders for new vessels.
On December 21, the supervisory board and the management board of the group decided to revoke the selection of Kermas Energija as a strategic partner and to seek another partner who will be willing to invest in the group's restructuring. Uljanik picked Kermas Energija as its strategic partner in March, under its call for recapitalisation.