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“Central House” was caused damage of €2.5m, lawyer


https://www.ipn.md/en/central-house-was-caused-damage-of-25m-lawyer-7967_1079077.html

The patrimonial interests of “Central House” and the company’s creditors have been seriously prejudiced by a contract to lease out a number of buildings situated on Mitropolitul Varlaam St in Chisinau, with a total area of 2,700 square meters, said lawyer Iosip Andrei, who represents “Central House”. According to him, it is a contract signed by the former administrator of “Central House” Vitalie Perciune with “Central Group”, which is an affiliate of this. More exactly, “Central House” monthly earns about €8,000 rental for these areas that is paid by “Central Group”, while the latter collects at least €100,000 a month from sub-lessees.

In a news conference at IPN, the lawyer said that Vitalie Perciun, serving as the statutory administrator of “Central House”, filed an introductory application to institute insolvency proceedings against the company he managed, invoking its payment incapacity. In 2020, the court accepted the application and insolvency proceedings were brought against the debtor “Central House”, given its payment incapacity. The court empowered the insolvency administrator Veaceslav Timotin to take over the company and the debtor assets it owned when the insolvency proceedings were instituted. It was established that “Central House” owned a number of buildings located on Varlaam St, with an area of 2,700 square meters. It was also determined that on August 1, 2018, “Central House” managed by Vitalie Perciun signed a lease with “Central Group”, which was an affiliate company that he also managed. Under this contract, the real estate belonging to “Central House” was leased out to “Central Group” for a period of 29 years. The contract was signed on behalf of both of the sides by Vitalie Perciun, who was the administrator of both of the companies.

Under the contract, “Central Group” was to pay rental of €10 per square meter for August 1 – December 31, 2018 and then €5 per square meter for January 1 – July 31, 2019 and €3 per square meter for August 1, 2019 – August 1, 2047, VAT included.

For its part, “Central Group” leases the areas out to 60-70 lessees for €40-50 per square meter, plus the payments for public utilities and guard services. “So, SRL “Central House” receives about €8,000 rental for 2,701.8  square meters a month from SRL “Central Group, while SRL “Central Group” gets at least €100,000 a month from sub-lessees,” explained the lawyer.

On the other hand, the debtor “Central House” is to pay debts of tens of millions of lei: about 15 million lei to ÎS “Gările și Stațiile Auto”; about 9.5 million lei to SRL “Gările Auto Moderne”; about 12 million lei to Vitalie Perciun, and approximately 4.5 million lei to SRL “Central Group”.

“After the insolvency proceedings against SRL “Central House” were instituted, the lease of August 1, 2018 can no longer be executed by the debtor given the specific features of the insolvency process and the clauses of the lease, especially as regards rental. Therefore, given that the lease is a successive execution contract, the legal and economic analysis showed that the further execution of the lease is not profitable,” stated Andrei Iosip.

According to him, during the tenancy period “Central House” has been caused damage of at least €2.5 million, which was collected by SRL “Central Group”.