The Casino Loutraki is in danger of imminent closing unless new funding can be found, company officials said. The business is a joint venture with 84 percent belonging to individuals and a bank and 16% to a company of the Municipality of Loutraki.
Manager Nikolaos Remandas said that, “We are trying to give a solution – by suggesting the conversion of the joint venture into a société anonyme- without excluding any other”.
According to the management of the company, the conversion of the joint venture into a société anonyme will bring new funds, in order to cover the accumulated liabilities, while the municipality believes that the legal form of the enterprise as a joint venture has never been an embankment for the profitability of the company over the previous years.
The manager accused the Municipal Authorities of Loutraki to be responsible for the current situation. “We have an accident since the establishment of this company, the fact that our partner has always been the politicians. Or, rather, a société anonyme which is ruled from the beginning of our operation in 1995, by politicians, who do not stay in the administration for more than four years, and a Management Board which changes more often than four years,” Remandas said.
He also added: “Our company, as every company, has its own specific vocabulary, has its own technique and the current politicians do not have enough time to understand it, no matter how intelligent ad capable they are. It is not easy and they usually react as politicians in economic issues. I was hearing all the time the word ‘political cost,’ which has nothing to do with business. No one wanted to face reality and to overcome the political cost.”
The Mayor of Loutraki-Agioi Theodoroi Kostas Logothetis, as President of the municipality’s company LOUTRAKI S.A., which participates in the joint venture of the Casino, stated that, “This is a municipal property and we will not allow to any business interest to harm it”.
He also mentioned that the company has had a turnover of more than 3 billion euros ($4 billion) over the 17 years of its operation. The Prefect of Peloponnese Petros Tatoulis called for communication and cooperation, in order to overpass the obstacles. He said that prudence and understanding should prevail, noting that the dissolution of the company will bring unexpected consequences.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
