Alvaro Noboa

Bananera Noboa is not bankrupt

QUITO

Fernando Alarcon, legal director of Bananera Noboa, owned by businessman Alvaro Noboa, said yesterday that the company has not declared bankruptcy and continues its normal activities, “the company is not, nor will be declared bankrupt, but will continue fighting for its rights,” said Alarcon.

The statement contradicts what IRS director, Carlos Marx Carrasco, said last Thursday. Carrasco informed that the banana company had declared bankruptcy and that the estate agency considered this a fraudulent debt, purportedly to avoid payment of $146 million owed to the Treasury as a result of assessments and interest since 2005. 

After lamenting the statements from Carrasco as “reckless and far from the facts,” Alarcon said that in reality there are two lawyers effectively seeking to collect court costs from the company and that they have requested a bankruptcy trial to carry out insolvency proceedings. Nonetheless, payment will be made by the company and, therefore, the proceeding will be terminated.

Regarding the $146 million debt, Alarcon said that Bananera Noboa will defend itself until proving that this debt is a “legal outrage on the part of the IRS.”

Alarcon confirmed that “certain” assets of Bananera Noboa have been transferred to other companies, but not to Banacont due to outstanding obligations. He denied that this has affected the assets of the former company.

Carrasco declared on Thursday that a member of the company’s General Council had explained that such property had been transferred presumably to reduce the assets and avoid payment.