The Ministry of Industry and Trade supported the bankruptcy of the Angstrem microelectronics plant

Angstrem’s bankruptcy case began in November 2016, but the procedure itself was never initiated. In August 2024, the Moscow Arbitration Court considered Mirt’s application to declare Angstrem bankrupt. At the meeting, a representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade submitted a petition to introduce a follow-up procedure and appoint an arbitration director. The representative of VEB.RF also supported this petition.

The case is now at the stage of consideration of creditors’ claims and discussion of the issue of introducing supervision. This procedure is a preparatory stage, during which the company continues to operate, but its management is obliged to provide temporary managers with documents relating to its activities over the past three years, said Oleg Permyakov, partner of Rustam Kurmaev and Partners. Surveillance precedes bankruptcy proceedings, in which the debtor’s property is sold to pay off debts to creditors.

The representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade added that the introduction of supervision is a step towards solving debt problems, in particular the debt to VEB. He stressed that there is no talk of stopping Angstrem’s activities; on the contrary, plans are being made to expand production, but the existing debt makes this difficult.

The court postponed further proceedings until October 2024 and issued applications to find a bankruptcy trustee.

Reasons for Angstrem’s debts

The company’s problems began in 2008, when VEB.RF provided a loan to its subsidiary Angstrem-T for the purchase of equipment and the construction of a chip plant. Angstrem became a guarantor of the loan. When Angstrem-T was unable to meet its obligations, the amount of debt exceeded 1.3 billion euros, and in 2019 the company filed for bankruptcy. By February 2023, Angstrem-T’s debt amounted to about 93.8 billion rubles, and VEB accrued default interest on this amount in the amount of 24.7 billion rubles and demanded its recovery from the guarantor, Angstrem.

Earlier, the court accepted VEB’s claim against Angstrem for 17.8 billion rubles. Against the background of increasing orders in 2022-2023, Angstrem continues to operate, but its bank accounts were seized in November 2023.

Business Outlook

According to Ilya Zharsky, Angstrem, being a strategic company, can avoid complete bankruptcy. Although in practice the financial recovery procedure is introduced very rarely, it can be applied to strategic companies like Angstrem. The law provides for a number of measures, including reorganization and debt restructuring, to avoid bankruptcy.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has the opportunity to offer a recovery procedure, backed by a state guarantee. This will provide protection to creditors and allow the company to emerge from bankruptcy without losing assets. However, even if recovery is not offered, the company can declare bankruptcy and continue to meet its obligations to customers, Zharsky concluded.

• Angstrem was established in June 1963 as a pilot plant in collaboration with the Research Institute of Precision Technology. In the USSR, the company, according to its own data, mass-produces personal computers, microcalculators, electronic watches and toys in millions of units per month.
• In August 2016, Angstrem Group LLC, owned by former Minister of Communications Leonid Reiman, planned to acquire 50% of Angstrem OJSC’s microelectronics plant.