eKathimerini — Another major Greek company, Jetoil, has successfully applied for protection from its creditors in order to implement a streamlining plan.
Three weeks before the application by the Marinopoulos supermarket chain, fuel company Mamidoil, known by its brand name Jetoil, filed for protection and was granted an injunction that protects it from its creditors, which it owes 314.5 million euros.
The company, owned by the Mamidakis Group, attributed its debts to the economic contraction, the slowdown in international economic activity, which has affected demand in the fuel market, and the reluctance of local banks to finance its activities, mainly through guarantees for oil imports.
Recently, the company dealt with cash flow problems that caused it to streamline its operation and close down a number of its service stations due to an inability to pay suppliers.
The company was reported to have lost chunks of its operations in the Peloponnese and Attica while also restricting its presence in Crete. A decision concerning its petition for bankruptcy is to be discussed in the Court of Appeals on November 1.
Some 184 million euros of Jetoil’s debts are owed to banks, 87 million to suppliers, 2.5 million to the Greek state, 650,000 euros to the social security funds and 920,000 euros to its employees, among others.
Jetoil, whose parent company was formed in the late 1960s by Kyriakos, Giorgos and Nikos Mamidakis, grew to become the third largest fuel company in Greece, with 600 gas stations. Its problems started a year ago, coinciding with the imposition of the capital controls in Greece. For months the local market has considered the company’s financial state as irreversible.
