With warnings from industry insiders unabated, here comes yet another case of a company demonstrating the suffocating situation prevailing in the industry. And to prove for the umpteenth time that the effort of productive reconstruction needs a lot… work and time, until it bears fruit, despite the progress recorded and the important initiatives of large groups.
“Epilektos”, the largest textile industry in the country with three factories in Farsala, Livadia and Lamia and 117 employees seems to have its back against the wall and is fighting to stay afloat.
Industry with its back against the wall
In fact, the statutory auditor of the company, which counts more than five decades of operation, declared his inability to express an opinion on the annual financial statements he recently published for the fiscal year 2023/2024.
As the affiant states in the report he drew up, “there are facts or circumstances that create serious doubts about the possibility of continuing the group’s activity”.
Among other things, he mentions the shrinking of the activities, the negative operating cash flows, the negative funds, but also the fact that “the cooperating creditor banks have terminated all of the company’s loan obligations”.
According to the consolidated statements of “Epilektos”, overdue bank liabilities (at group level) amounted on June 30, 2024 to 6.82 million euros, overdue liabilities to suppliers and creditors to approximately 3.6 million euros, while there were also unpaid obligations to employees in the amount of 275 thousand euros, which related to the payroll of the parent company’s staff from April 2024 to June 2024.
Suspension of negotiation
In the wake of Orkotos’ remarks, the Capital Market Commission decided to suspend trading of the stock from the Athens Stock Exchange, which has been under surveillance for some time.
It should be noted that the company has been a listed company since 1991.
In negotiations with the banks
The management of “Epilektos” has drawn up an “action plan” to reverse the downward trend. This, according to everything stated in the financial statements for the 2023/2024 fiscal year, includes the reaching of an agreement with the cooperating banks, for the regulation of the loan obligations.
In this direction, the administration has already started contacts with the representatives of the banks and has begun to draw up a business plan, which is necessary to reach an agreement.
In addition, he plans to sell off the company’s non-operating real estate and machinery while he has already agreed with some of the key suppliers and creditors to settle their overdue debts.
However, the management stresses that if there is no progress in the negotiations with the creditor banks, the main suppliers and creditors, “it will not be possible to reverse the negative course of the financial figures of the company and by extension the group”.
However, he underlines that he estimates that the group will continue its operation until at least one year from the approval of the attached financial statements, with the aim of trying to find a sustainable solution with the creditor banks.
Nine months, six locks: The industry with its back against the wall
According to market players there are a number of production units that are fighting for their survival.
In 2024 alone, six of the country’s major industries downed their shutters. Gioula, Sonoco, Varvaresos, Tsantalis, Syrma and Fieratex were forced to shut down their engines, proving that there is a long way to go before Greece becomes friendly to production units.
“Theodoropoulos’ bell”
The explosive cocktail that the Greek industries have to face was recently criticized by the president of the BSE from the stage of the open event of the general assembly of the BSE.
Spyros Theodoropoulos, after recognizing the progress made by the Greek economy, made a special reference to the perennial problems (such as spatial planning, the speed of administration of justice, the polynomial) but also to the new ones that businesses face, such as the high cost of energy (link SOS of all industry players) and its wide fluctuations, the lack of workers of all specialties and the difficulty of SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to secure sufficient bank financing.
Need for investment leap
“Measures are needed, immediate and effective, as other European countries have done, since as we all understand, structural interventions need time to bring results”, noted Mr. Theodoropoulos.
The president of the BSE also emphasized “the need for Greece to immediately make an investment leap that will last beyond the Recovery Fund”, referring to a tool that will allow the immediate start of investment without time-consuming bureaucratic approval procedures, as for example the excess depreciation in productive investments.
The new production model
The government is trying to give its own answer to the problem of deindustrialization, through the strategy recently presented by the Minister of Development, Takis Theodorikakos, which foresees a network of targeted actions amounting to 3.3 billion euros for the next three years for the productive transformation of the country.
According to Mr. Theodorikakos, the goal is to reduce the administrative bureaucratic burden for export companies by at least 25% within two years by abolishing 15 time-consuming bureaucratic procedures.
A priority also, as he emphasized, is the even greater facilitation of businesses operating within industrial parks with the same reform logic: “first I issue permits, then I also check building and environmental permits.
And for this purpose we are in close cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Energy regarding spatial planning issues”.
Plan for each region separately
The new production model of the economy, underlined Takis Theodorikakos, utilizes the advantages of Greece and each region separately, contributing to balanced regional development.
Source: ot.gr
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