After 15m-euro nine-month losses, Flamingo could lose another 7m euros from asset revaluation

Electrical and IT retailer Flamingo International (FLA), which is struggling to survive the economic crisis, is hoping to have 4.5 million euros in debts to suppliers erased after it saw its sales down by 79 million euros in the first nine months of the year. The retailer, controlled by Dragos Cinca and the Adamescu family, suffered a 55% sales decline in euros, with its turnover down to 63.7 million euros, 79 million euros less than in the similar period of last year. The decline largely has to do with the 42% decline of the electrical and IT retail market, one of the biggest in the region, as well as with Flamingo reducing its distribution business, and with the depreciation of the Romanian currency. In the third quarter of the year Flamingo announced a 53.6% sales decline, to 81.9 million RON (19.3 million euros), continuing the decline recorded in the first half of the year. The decline was deepened by the gradual phasing out of wholesale (distribution) operations, which used to account for around 40% of the turnover last year. The drastic shrinking of its business caused Flamingo losses of almost 15 million euros in the first nine months of the year, 2.6 million euros of which account for the losses of the third quarter. The company announced it expected additional accounting losses of around 30 million RON (7 million euros) from revaluating the assets (intangible assets, debt and stocks), which will be found in the 2009 consolidated results, reveals the nine-month report of the company's managers.