PLAZA CENTERS N.V.
NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS IN ‘000 EUR
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NOTE 5:- TRADING PROPERTIES (Cont.)
As detailed above, despite many notifications sent to the Romanian authorities expressing
a wish to renegotiate the existing PPP agreement, no major breakthrough could be
achieved, in addition, the Romanian authorities have not cooperated substantively with the
Company’s request to approve the transfer of the Company’s shares in the Project SPV and
its interest in the Project to AFI.
Because of the abovementioned issues surrounding the satisfaction of the conditions
precedent in the pre-sale agreement, it is currently not certain whether the sale agreement
as contemplated in the pre-sale agreement would be entered into and whether therefore the
transaction with AFI would proceed. As such the Company, Dambovita NL and AFI
Europe N.V. agreed to extend the Long Stop Date until December 31, 2024. Additionally,
as the external appraisers, in their opinion from the previous years did not reflect the risk
related to the uncertainty in respect of fulfilment of the conditions precedent set out in the
pre-sale agreement, as described above, management has concluded that it can’t measure
the net realizable value of the Project based on either the pre-sale agreement or based on
the residual value approach as management would need to assume that it would receive the
Romanian authorities approval to restructure and adjust the PPP agreement. As a result, the
value of the trading property of the Project was fully reduced.
Still, the Company believes that despite this reduction there is no change in the value of
the Company’s rights under the PPP Agreement. In addition, management, believes that
the Company has a good case to claim compensation for economic damages. On the other
hand, if the Company comes to an understanding with the Romanian authorities, it will
measure the Casa Radio NRV to reflect its updated financial projections.
In light of the above the Company is exploring all its options in order to obtain progress,
including among others its legal options. Accordingly, as of May 16, 2022 the Company
has submitted with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
(“ICSID”) a Request for Arbitration (the “Request”) against Romania. In the Request the
Company seeks full compensation of the losses it incurred due to failure of the Romanian
authorities to cooperate, negotiate and adjust the PPP agreement as described in the note
5(1)(c) which include but not limited to the Company’s investment in the Project SPV, loss
of potential profit, and costs and expenses of the arbitration. The Request was registered
by ICSID on June 3, 2022. The Tribunal was constituted on November 1, 2022. On April
6, 2023 the Company filed its Memorial and supporting evidence at the International Centre
for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, setting out its claims against Romania. On May
18, 2023 the Company submitted its objection to Romania’s Request for Bifurcation into
separate phases on jurisdiction and the merits. Romania’s application has been rejected and
it has now been determined that the Arbitration will not be bifurcated.
On July 12, 2023, Plaza and Dambovita Center SRL (a subsidiary of Plaza and the Project
Company in charge of the Casa Radio Project) received a notice of default from the
Ministry of Finance under the public-private partnership contract governing the Casa Radio
Project. The Company denies all claims formulated by the Ministry of Finance, including
any made in the ongoing ICSID arbitration with Romania.