BALLAST NEDAM AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Royal Imtech (>> Royal Imtech), the troubled Dutch engineering services company, has been granted protection from creditors by a court in the Netherlands, days after its German unit filed for insolvency.
Imtech employs 22,000 staff across Europe and generated annual sales of about 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) before accounting fraud hit its Polish and German operations in 2013.
Imtech Chief Executive Gerard van der Aast said the company's employees were still at work and that the executive board would remain in place "for the time being."
"Filing for suspension of payments now may optimise the chances that substantial parts of the Imtech Group may continue in the interest of all stakeholders and, specifically, our employees," the company said.
Imtech declined to comment on a report on TV broadcaster RTL that family-owned Dutch company Pom Holdings was interested in acquiring Imtech's marine business.
Imtech Deutschland GmbH & Co, Imtech's largest business, filed for insolvency last week after failing to secure credit from lenders.
Talks with the banks' creditors over 75 million euros in financing for the loss-making unit, that had been under discussion since late July, definitively failed this week, sending the shares plunging to new lows.
Imtech has been damaged by its involvement in an anti-cartel investigation in Germany for allegedly conspiring to overcharge energy company RWE for the building of a power plant.
Imtech's shares have lost 99 percent of their value, falling from more that 200 euros to less than a euro, representing a market capitalisation of about 50 million euros.
They fell a further 39 percent at the start of trading in Amsterdam on Tuesday after the creditor protection was granted by a Rotterdam court.
ING Group (>> ING GROEP), Rabobank [RABOI.UL], Commerzbank (>> Commerzbank AG) and ABN Amro
According to Imtech's 2014 annual report, ING held 15.7 percent of shares, Rabobank 13.8 percent, Commerzbank 11.8 percent and ABN Amro 5.9 percent.
Imtech is the latest in a series of Dutch companies to run into trouble in recent years.
Last month, builder Ballast Nedam (>> Ballast Nedam) agreed to be taken over by Turkey's Renaissance Construction for just 30 million euros ($33 million), after project overruns pushed the Dutch firm to the brink of bankruptcy.
SBM Offshore (>> SBM OFFSHORE), which leases floating oil and gas platforms, settled a bribery case with Dutch prosecutors last year for a record $240 million and is still under investigation in Brazil.
(Editing by David Goodman and Keith Weir)
By Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch
