Multinationals cannot find buyers for former factories' plots

The sale of unused assets, once the fastest way to bolster a company's cash reserves, has in the past year become a cumbersome process, at the very moment pressures on cash are at their peak.

The old plants of some top FMCG producers, such as Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive or Cadbury, are likely to stay on the market for much longer than the normal duration of the sale of such assets, of six to nine months.
 
Are producers willing to wait for the right price considering financing difficulties are putting pressure on them to find new cash sources?Plots of land put up for sale include assets belonging to Cadbury sweets producer or Overseas bakery group, located in Bucharest.

Cadbury has recently announced it planned to sell two plots of land, one in a semi-central area of Bucharest, the old location of Kandia-Excelent chocolate plant, and the second in Voluntari, near Bucharest, after in 2006 the sale of some unused assets significantly contributed to the fourfold profit increase from 2005. In their turn, Overseas owners in June 2008 put up for sale the location of Lujerul bakery plant, with the over three-hectare land plot being at that time valued at around 30m euros, a sum that can no longer be obtained because of the steep demand decline.

Ziarul Financiar