THE LARGEST ROUTE CARRIER IN RIGA IS GOING BANKRUPT

Riga's largest company engaged in intercity passenger transportation, on June 28, began the legal process of bankruptcy protection. The application for this was considered by the court of the Vidzeme suburb. Within the next two months, Rigas mikroautobusu satiksme (RMS) will have to submit to the court a plan of measures for protection against insolvency, agreed and approved by the company's creditors.

There are 11 intra-city routes under the management of the organization. In particular, the company carries out minibus transportation from the center of the Latvian capital to the stations Kengarags, Ziepniekkalns, Zolitude, Daugavgriva and others.

The company has been operating in Riga since 2013. Its capitalization is about €1 million. RMS is owned by B-Bus, whose beneficiary is entrepreneur Vitaly Komar.

In 2020, the company's turnover amounted to almost €4.8 million, which is almost 3.2 times less than the revenue for 2019. The company ended the year with a loss of €1.87 million. Information about the results of the economic activity of the enterprise for the past year was not made public.

RMS representative Maya Lazdinya told reporters that the cause of financial difficulties in the company's work was the pandemic, which affected the reduction of passenger traffic.

That is why in the fall of 2020, the company was forced to apply to the municipal Rigas satiksme with a request to raise prices for services in accordance with a subcontract agreement. Instead of the current €1.15, the price may be more than €2.

A special expert commission to resolve this issue was established in May 2021. By April 2022, the commission members confirmed that the request to review the cost of services is well justified. Apparently, now the company hopes to pay off its debts, given the change in tariff policy.

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