Viajes Marsans, one of Spain’s biggest and oldest tour operators, has been declared insolvent, according to a court ruling seen by AFP on Monday.
The judge took the decision on Friday after about 20 companies made complaints over unpaid bills. But the judge ruled that Posibilitum Business, which acquired Marsans earlier this month for 600 million euros (740 million dollars), can continue to run the firm.
Marsans’ financial difficulties took a turn for the worse in December when a British court ordered its airline Air Comet to close owing to its massive debts. In March Marsans’ insurance company Seguros Mercurio went under.
Spanish news reports have said Posibilitum plans to dismiss more than half of all the firm’s workers. They said Posibilitum will also close half of Marsans’ offices across the country and move out of its modern headquarters in Madrid in order to save money.
The business daily Cinco Dias Monday reported that Marsans had not paid the rent of 700,000 euros per month on the building “for months” to the German group Union Investment which owns it.
Madrid, June 28, 2010 (AFP)
