FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The insolvency of Royal Imtech 's (AS:IMUN) German arm last week was triggered by the parent company's failure to pay the unit 21 million euros (15 million pounds) it owed, Imtech Deutschland's insolvency administrator said.
Royal Imtech filed for protection from its creditors on Tuesday, five days after the German unit made a similar filing, overwhelmed by accounting fraud in Germany that triggered three years of operating losses and major asset writedowns.
"Due to the Dutch company's current financial problems and the protection from creditors it has filed for we do not expect this outstanding payment can be realised promptly," Peter-Alexander Borchardt of Hamburg-based law firm Reimer Rechtsanwaelte, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Borchardt said his team was in negotiations to obtain a loan and banks had released a high single-digit million euro sum of previously frozen funds.
"That gives us a basis for our efforts to continue work," he said.
Imtech Deutschland is still servicing 960 construction sites and many sub-contractors are supporting the company by showing up for work, he said.