The Mladá fronta publishing house has filed for bankruptcy again and asks that the insolvency court declare bankruptcy for its property as soon as possible, without delay. Last week, the High Court overturned the publishing house’s bankruptcy and the subsequent sale at auction.
In the insolvency filing, the company states that the only solution at this point is bankruptcy. It cannot be resolved by reorganization, because “there is no proposal for its permission that would be eligible for discussion and the deadline for submitting a proposal for permission for reorganization has already expired.”
The High Court annulled the declaration of bankruptcy due to the possible bias of Judge Zdeněk Strnad towards Mladá fronta, or other participants in the proceedings. Judge Strnad was expelled from the decision in the Mladá fronta case, and another judge of the court of the first instance will decide on the resolution of the publishing house’s bankruptcy again.
Mlada fronta says they were surprised at Strnad’s exclusion from decision-making at this stage of the proceedings.
According to the information in the insolvency register, the file was assigned in České Budějovice to Judge Miloš Vondráček.
The Mladá fronta publishing house was auctioned off at the beginning of September for CZK 50.1 million to the PP Partners agency owned by entrepreneur Andrej Čírtek. The starting price was CZK 36 million. A company that publishes the weekly Euro was sold minus any liabilities that arose before the bankruptcy was announced.
Michal Strnad’s Czechoslovak Group is a client of Cirtek’s agency. According to earlier reports about the publishing house, the Czech News Center and media entrepreneur Jaromír Soukup have shown interest.
In insolvency proceedings with the publishing house, over 400 creditors applied for receivables, claiming approximately CZK 400 million. Receivables should be paid from the auction proceeds.
The publishing house also includes the weekly Euro and the Euro.cz portal. The Books division launches around 250 new titles a year. Mladá fronta also publishes auto-moto and hobby magazines, medical magazines, Puntík magazine for the youngest children, Maminčin Puntík magazine, and Tečka magazine for children from the age of six.
The publishing house owner is the entrepreneur František Savov, who lives in London and is accused of tax fraud in the Czech Republic.
