June 30 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said on Thursday it has closed its in-depth investigation into Romanian support to petrochemical company Oltchim.
In December 2018, the Commission found that Oltchim received around 335 million euro of incompatible aid and ordered Romania to recover this aid, the Commission said in a press release.
In December 2021, the General Court found that the Commission had failed to demonstrate that two support measures - the non-enforcement of debts and the debt cancellations - constituted state aid and, therefore, partially annulled the 2018 Commission decision. As a consequence court's judgement, the Commission's formal investigation remained open in respect of the two measures at issue.
In May 2019, Oltchim was declared insolvent and completely ceased its economic activity. As a result, the investigation has become without object and is now officially closed.
In December 2018, Romanian chemicals producer Chimcomplex Borzesti SA [BSE:CRC] took over Oltchim for approximately 582.3 million lei ($123 million/ 118 million euro).
Oltchim, which had been in insolvency since 2013, was the only producer of liquid caustic soda in Central Europe and the only producer of chlorine and polyether polyols in Romania.
Chimcomplex shares traded 2.14% higher at 19.1 lei on the Bucharest bourse as at 1303 CET on Thursday.
(1 euro=4.9454 lei)