Official receiver says Inapa Portugal bankruptcy status could actually “save the business”

 In Construction project management, Insolvencies, News

The official legal receiver for Portuguese paper distribution company Inapa Portugal is to present a report by the end of this week into the company’s insolvency which is expected to rule out a rescue plan.

But ironically, the receiver, Bruno Costa Pereira believes that it could actually save the company and allow it to continue trading.

“I believe that it is possible to save the business and not let it exit the market because the company is continuing to sell”, he told the news agency Lusa.

According to the receiver, “this has a high probability of happening because the insolvency ensures that the company remains outside the legal protection regime with the capacity to continue to operate without the disruption that could have arisen if it had debts that were not restructured as part of its Special Revitalization Process (SRP) and the consequent possibility that creditors could have acted on their own against the company.”

Given this “regulated situation, without needing to be concerned about the past”, Bruno Costa Pereira believes that Inapa – a paper distribution company belonging to the group Inapa Investmentos, Participações e Gestão (Inapa IPG) that in July last year announced its insolvency – could “find solutions that would enable the company to be sold or be subject to a capitalisation project” thereby saving the business.

“With what I know about the project, I am absolutely assured that Inapa Portugal can instigate an insolvency process and that creditors could be called to discuss the future of the company, ensuring that it meets its employment, social security and tax commitments, as it has done to date”, he said.

In July, the holding Inapa IPG announced its insolvency because of a lack of short term cashflow at its subsidiary Inapa Deutschland GmBH to the amount of €12 million for which it could not find a solution after the government refused to stump up the money.

Founded in 1965, the company is a leader in paper and packaging distribution. Its main shareholder is Parpública, the State holding under which all State-owned companies are managed, with a 44.89% share.