The Trustee of ST3 Offshore sp. z o.o. in bankruptcy informs that the procedure for the sale of the bankrupt company is ongoing. The company has not yet been sold, which also means that there are no funds from the sale price on the bankruptcy estate's bank account to satisfy creditors.
The sales procedure is three-stage. Firstly, a preliminary agreement for the sale of the company will be concluded, after which the trustee will apply to the appropriate minister for consent to sell the company to the buyer. The minister will issue a decision to grant or refuse the consent in the administrative procedure. In case of a positive decision of the relevant minister, the parties will proceed to the second stage, i.e., the conditional agreement, after which a request will be sent to authorized entities (including the Management Board of Szczecin and Świnoujście Seaports and the State Treasury) whether they exercise the statutory pre-emption right. In case of a statement of non-exercise of the pre-emption right, the parties will proceed to the conclusion of the final agreement, i.e., the sale agreement of the company and transfer of the property.
The trustee expects that the sales process will take several months due to the legal conditions described above.
Only after the conclusion of the final sales agreement of ST3 Offshore, the trustee will be authorized to commence the payment procedure for the obligations arising after the announcement of bankruptcy (including the receivables of employees for the period from March 31, 2020, and the receivables from the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund loan), which constitute the costs of the bankruptcy proceedings. After paying all the costs incurred during bankruptcy, the way will be open to satisfy creditors according to the respective satisfaction categories based on the final distribution plan. The distribution plan will thus cover all receivables arising until the day preceding the announcement of bankruptcy, i.e., until March 30, 2020, inclusive, which have been recognized on the list of receivables. A necessary condition for the trustee to prepare the final distribution plan of the bankruptcy estate funds is the final and approved by the Judge-Commissioner list of receivables. The list of receivables was submitted by the trustee to the Szczecin-Centrum District Court in Szczecin on March 01, 2021. Additional lists of receivables have also been prepared and submitted during the proceedings. Currently, the court is verifying the formal aspects of the submitted list, which includes about 800 claims.
In view of the above circumstances, the trustee currently has no possibility to indicate even an approximate date for satisfying individual claims, including employee claims. The trustee will provide information publicly on the ST3 Offshore website when starting to prepare the final distribution plan.
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