Public bus operator Reolian Public Transport Co Ltd was declared bankrupt Wednesday after the government and two Macau banks were unable to reach a deal to keep the firm running.
A court press statement says no formal proposal to save the company from bankruptcy was presented during a creditors meeting held Wednesday.
According to Business Daily that Banco Luso Internacional SA and Bank of China’s Macau branch offered to refinance Reolian’s loans of about 160 million patacas (US$20 million).
In return they asked the government to approve an increase to what the company is paid to run its bus services.
According to Reolian’s financial statements, the company is owed about 50 million patacas from a 23.3 percent in service subsidies approved in June last year but which Reolian never received.
The government refused to do so, saying it had to wait for the Administrative Court to decide on whether or not Reolian was due the increase, the paper said.
The government took over Reolian’s operations on October 2, one day after the bus firm filed for bankruptcy because it ran out of money to pay its workers.
With no deal to exit bankruptcy, the Lower Court judge presiding over the meeting declared the bus operator broke and all of it assets seized, including its buses.
Reolian runs 27 of the city’s over 60 routes.
In a document filed later, the administration asked the court to be allowed to continue using the buses, one of the sources said.
The court is yet to decide on this issue. (macaunews)
