Court postpones bankruptcy ruling for Croatia's troubled shipyard

Court postpones bankruptcy ruling for Croatia's troubled shipyard
24 April 2019 https://www.reuters.com/article/croatia-shipbuilding/court-postpones-ban...

SARAJEVO, April 24 (Reuters) - A court in Croatia on Wednesday postponed a bankruptcy ruling for the country’s biggest shipbuilding group Uljanik until May 13, as the government tried to delay activation of state guarantees to a customer for late delivery of a vessel.

The commercial court in the northwestern town of Pazin had already delayed its ruling from March and the decision in May should be final. Bankruptcy would threaten the jobs of around 3,000 workers.

Uljanik, which owns two shipyards in the northern Adriatic cities of Pula and Rijeka and is 25 percent owned by the state, has been working to stave off bankruptcy due to liquidity problems that began in 2017.

The government has said it will not back a restructuring plan due to the financial burden on the state and doubts the proposal could turn the company’s fortunes around.

Last week, a Luxembourg-based company requested the activation of the state guarantees worth 1 billion kuna ($151 million) after an order was not delivered in the agreed time.