Prague-based Mammoth, which operates the Mamut electronics e-shop, owes about CZK 1.96 billion. It has filed an insolvency petition asking the court to declare bankruptcy. This is according to data published yesterday in the insolvency register. The company says it ran into problems when its customers stopped paying its debts. Mammoth owes money mainly to electronics suppliers, but disputes most of the debts. Some goods may not have been delivered at all, according to the company, and Mammoth says police are investigating.
Mammoth says in its bankruptcy petition that it owes nearly two billion to 50 creditors. Some 544 million in debts are already more than 30 days overdue, with 46 million of them even more than three months overdue. Most of Mammoth’s debts are owed to T-Mobile and J&T Leasing, from which it purchased electronics. Mammoth used to sell or lease some of the goods to other companies, but according to the e-shop operator, they stopped paying for the goods last autumn and have not communicated with Mammoth since the beginning of March this year.
Although Mammoth claims it got into trouble because of the companies’ failure to pay for the goods it sold or leased to them, it denies owing T-Mobile and J&T Leasing a total of 1.86 billion for those goods. He claims that the deliveries of the goods were merely fictitious and that part of the debts owed by T-Mobile and J&T Leasing will therefore be disputed. “The documents in the possession of the debtor (Mammoth, ed.) show that the goods may not have been delivered to the debtor at all, and it is therefore uncertain whether the debtor’s liabilities as alleged by the debtor’s creditors actually exist, or whether they are only apparent liabilities, or whether they exist in the amount alleged,” Mammoth writes in its insolvency petition.
However, T-Mobile spokeswoman Patricia Šedivá told HN.cz that Mammoth continuously confirmed the performance of T-Mobile’s deliveries with handover protocols, which did not show any doubt. “T-Mobile is clearly confident in its position,” Šedivá said. According to the spokeswoman, the operator had the claim confirmed by a reputable auditing company. J&T Bank did not comment on the situation, according to HN.cz, and Mammoth’s media representative Aneta Havlová told the server that she would not provide information beyond the insolvency filing.
Mammoth is petitioning the Municipal Court in Prague to declare bankruptcy against the company. This is a liquidation solution to bankruptcy, where the debtor’s assets are sold off. However, Mammoth itself states in its insolvency petition that it has movable assets worth only 34 million. The rest of the company’s assets consist mainly of debts owed by other companies to Mammoth for goods delivered for 2.1 billion. However, according to Mammoth, these debts are probably uncollectible.
Source: HN.cz and CTK
