The pre-bankruptcy manager for the Div Group, the company which runs the Brodosplit shipyard which in turn is owned by businessman Tomislav Debeljak, has submitted a report stating that more than 400 claims by creditors have been received on more than 15,000 pages, not all of which have yet been submitted to the court.

In the report, trustee Irena Kelava underlined that since the pre-bankruptcy procedure was launched at the end of April, the Div Group has continued regular operations and that it has 786 employees and an average monthly revenue of 30 million kuna.

The report further notes that the Div Group has new outstanding liabilities of 5.64 million kuna, and that a hearing to examine the claims is scheduled for 31 August.

At the end of April, the Zagreb Commercial Court received a proposal for pre-bankruptcy proceedings against the Div Group, citing defaults on payments amounting to 41.69 million kuna.

The procedure was requested by the debtor itself and the relevant documentation notes that the Div Group is the parent company of a group employing a total of 4,000 workers, 862 of whom are employees of the parent company.

The debtor is currently the largest employer in the town of Knin, employing 15 percent of the city’s able-bodied population. The group is also the largest factory of standard screws in Europe, which sells its products on the European market, especially the EU, as well as on the markets of North Africa, the Middle East, and America.

The group and its affiliated companies directly impact the performance of specific activities, including shipbuilding, which undeniably represents a strategically important industry for Croatia, the Div Group underlined in its submission requesting the launching of pre-bankruptcy proceedings.