ING agrees to restructure Flamingo’s €17.5 mln debt

The two companies agreed on the restructuring of the contract concluded in 2001, under which Flamingo borrowed around €17.5 million.

“The agreement with ING is one of the most important steps we have taken to overcome the current economic crisis. The future performance of the company depends largely upon the contribution of all our business partners, banks, providers, and commercial property owners”, Flamingo said in an official statement.

Over the past three months, the worsening of the financial crisis has led to major changes at Flamingo, such as the appointment as chairman of the board of Alexandru Adamescu, son of businessman Dan Adamescu who is now the majority shareholder after the exit of QVT.

Alexandru Adamescu replaced Dragos Simion who served as chairman since January 2008. Simion proposed a capital hike of €7 million, more than the company market cap of €5.7 million at BSE in 2005.

The round of management changes at Flamingo started when in July, Jiri Rizek, the managing director who served for two years in this post was replaced by Stefan Treiber. Flamingo reported €44.9 million revenues in first half this year, down 45% compared to the same period of last year, on 50% decline in home appliance market, which led to a workforce cut to 750 in August, from 1100 in 2008.