MINSK MEAT-PROCESSING PLANT DECLARES BANKRUPTCY

Minsk Meat-Processing Plant filed an insolvency claim with the Economic court of the Minsk region. The company, which until recently was one of the ten largest meat-processors in Belarus, owed creditors over 140 million Belarusian rubles (402 million rubles).

The claim is dated May 17, but the public has recently learned about the bankruptcy from a publication on the TUT.BY Telegram channel.

The company itself, which many knew thanks to the Meat Power trademark, has existed since 1922. In 2013, the unitary enterprise was privatized and received the status of a joint stock company. However, what exactly became the main factor that led the company's financial activities to bankruptcy is unknown.

So far, no one has given any comments on this case, either in the Economic court of the Minsk region, or in the management of the enterprise itself. 

The bankruptcy publication on the VKontakte social network collected massive comments, which presented various explanations for the reasons for the huge debts accumulated by the meat-processing plant. Some see the bankruptcy as the ‘hand of Moscow’ - the interest of the Russian meat producers to squeeze the participants of the Belarusian market. Others talk about an ineffective business model, according to which the Minsk Meat-Processing Plant was actually forced to support ruining agricultural producers (collective farms).

To date, a significant number of enforcement proceedings have been initiated against the Minsk Meat-Processing Plant, the amount of which reaches 30 million Belarusian rubles. At the same time, the assets of the company itself are estimated at 117.7 million rubles, and there are only 123 thousand on the company's current account.

In such a situation, even the sale of an enterprise will not help to pay off more than 80% of the total amount of debt. 

At the same time, about 1000 employees carry out labor activities in the company, who, if the company is declared bankrupt, may be left without wages and source of income. The company continues to be owned by the state (by the Minsk Regional Executive Committee), which owns 88% of the shares, and the Stolbtsy District Executive Committee, which owns the remaining 12% of the shares. Whether the owner will save the company, which ended last year with a loss of 12.6 million rubles, is more of a rhetorical question.