Local group of companies RTC Holding, owned by Romanian businessman Octavian Radu (in picture), posted a turnover of EUR 56 million in the first half of this year, down 12 percent on the same period of last year.

Two companies in the group, Diverta bookshop and TCE Logistica have filed for insolvency earlier this year and will be re-organized. The two companies had together a EUR 18.5 million debt.

“At a group level, we managed not to lose money on operations, compared to 2009, when in the first six months we had a EUR 2 million loss. Given the seasonality of our business sectors, we hope the second half of the year will get us back in the area of net profit,” said Octavian Radu.

The decreasing pace reduced in the first half of the year, when some of the companies saw drops of up to 30 percent in their business.

The group saw Diverta bookshop's business affected again by the VAT increase in the first half of this year, while on the fashion segment, the group closed down some of the smaller shops while focusing on Debenhams and Aldo.