The High Court in Prague annulled the declaration of bankruptcy of the Mladá fronta publishing house. Last week, it overturned a resolution of the Regional Court in České Budějovice, which last year rejected a proposal to reorganize the publishing house and sent it into bankruptcy. The insolvency administrator then started selling the property of the publishing house to the satisfaction of creditors. The case will now be dealt with again by the court of the first instance.
“Whatever the reason for the decision, it is not entirely happy for creditors of non-essential claims such as the debtor’s employees, the tax office, the health insurance companies. so they are not able to influence the fate of the property, because they have no support for it in the law. But we always respect the court’s decision and we will proceed accordingly, “said Hýsková.
The young front, which published, for example, the economic weekly Euro, several other magazines or books, was sent into bankruptcy by the regional court last November. He rejected a proposal for reorganization submitted by one of the creditors, the company of media entrepreneur Jaromír Soukup. The insolvency administrator Hýsková then started selling the property of the publishing house.
In January this year, the online division of the publishing house, including the trademarks of the printed magazine Euro, was sold at auction, bought by Internet Info for CZK 15.8 million. In the same month, some magazines were auctioned for almost 4.2 million. In February, Albatros Media bought the publishing’s book division for $ 14 million. The sale of the additional property was prevented by a ban on monetization due to several appeals to the High Court.
Creditors are asking the publisher for about CZK 400 million. The cumulative loss of the Young Front was almost 200 million at the end of last year. The company no longer has any employees.