In a bold, if unconventional move, the Algarve’s council bosses have decided that they ought to buy the fibre optic system installed by Globalgarve, now that they successfully have driven the company into receivership.
The mayors have even come up with a price for the network which is substantially below the price that they wanted to charge a third party in a desperate attempt to keep the service running.
The fibre optic system links council buildings across the Algarve and council buildings within the municipalities.
Globalgarve went bust primarily because its customers refused to pay their bills. These customers were the region’s councils, the same councils that now want to do a deal with the receiver and purchase the system which they have resolutely refused to pay for.
The receiver’s first job will be to recover all monies due to Globalgarve and he first may be seeing the councils in court to get Globalgarve‘s bills paid before he can countenance a deal with the councils to buy the very system that they forced into insolvency.
Globalgarve’s receiver is in a strong position to pursue its debtors so as to pay off a good proportion of what it owes.
According to the straight-faced President of AMAL, the Algarve mayors’ taking shop, "14 of the 16 regional mayors have signed the proposal, and the two remaining mayors will do so soon."
The amount proposed by AMAL is about €270,000,” according to a report in today’s Sul Informaçao.
Globalgarve was declared bankrupt following a lawsuit filed by workers in January who had not been paid. This left the fibre optic infrastructure, which serves the public buildings, with nobody running it.
After their proposal is made, which the mayors hope will be validated at a meeting of creditors, each council can run the system independently if it can work out the technicalities.
This is the plan but even if the councils manage to get control of the network, do they know how it runs, who will pay for its upkeep and technical oversight and do they need it?
This infrastructure was put up for auction as part of the Globalgarve insolvency proceedings for a base value of €500,000 but nobody wanted this bespoke and presumably outdated piece of kit.
It may be that alternative technology now exists that makes this expensive Algarve super highway obsolete.
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