Hýsková stated that she had no choice but to propose to the Regional Court in České Budějovice that it stop the operation of the publishing house. “In the given procedural situation, there are essentially no liquid assets from which it would be possible to pay for the operation of the debtor’s plant, including the payment of employees’ wages, the costs of printing individual titles,” said Hýsková. She further stated that the latest reports from the publishing house on its economic situation show that receivables for assets are growing.
At the beginning of the autumn, the young front announced in the register that it had overdue liabilities, so-called non-current receivables, of CZK 53.2 million. Of this, it owed 8.5 million in wages from May to September. IN a letter by which the editors of the Euro magazine and the Euro.cz website addressed the administrator, the court, the creditors’ committee and CPI Property Group, it is stated that neither the employees nor co-workers have yet received wages and bonuses for October.
The Mladá fronta publishing house owes CPI Property Group, one of the secured creditors, CZK 23.2 million and interest. This company provided the Young Front with a loan of 23.2 million. So far, the publishing house has not returned anything to it, the loan was due on May 18 this year, said CPI spokesman Jakub Velen. Regarding Hýsková’s proposal to close the publishing house, he stated that “in the current situation and from our position, it is not for us to evaluate this procedure of the insolvency administrator.”
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Hýsková stopped publishing the last issue of the weekly Euro. It is an interference with the debtor’s assets. This was stated in the insolvency register by the creditors’ committee this week. The situation is similar with the monthly Profit. In a letter sent to interested parties, the editors of the weekly and the Euro.cz website described the suspension of the issue as an unacceptable step.
Over four hundred creditors have signed up
The Regional Court in České Budějovice declared bankruptcy of the Mladá fronta publishing house on 9 November. In insolvency proceedings, over four hundred creditors applied for receivables, claiming about 400 million crowns.
The company was sold in an electronic auction in September, when it was auctioned for 50.1 million crowns by the PP Partners agency of entrepreneur Andrej Čírtek. Due to the fact that the High Court in Prague subsequently canceled the bankruptcy, the result of the auction is also canceled. The court then declared bankruptcy again in early November. The second auction with a starting price of 25.5 million crowns was to be held on November 24, and neither the court nor the creditors gave the necessary consent.
Publishing losses are growing by millions of crowns a month. The authors of the books terminate the license agreements and the employees leave the publishing house.
The Books division launches around two hundred and fifty new titles a year. Mladá fronta also publishes auto-moto and hobby magazines, medical magazines and periodicals for children. The owner is businessman František Savov, who lives in London and is accused of tax fraud in the Czech Republic. Since the beginning of July this year, however, Pavel Boušek from Rychnov near Jablonec nad Nisou has been registered as the sole shareholder in the Commercial Register.
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