The Ministry of Transport is preparing itself for what could be a forced shutdown of the Novelo's receivership. 7NEWS has received reliable reports which tell us that Atlantic Bank Limited has pulled the plug on the Novelo's operation because the company continues to lose money and is not servicing its primary debt to the bank.
According to our reports, instead of paying back, it's going deeper into debt as the current management has run up an overdraft that exceeds one million dollars. With that, we understand that Atlantic has written to the government and DFC explaining that they can take over the costly operation - because it will no longer support it.
There's no indication yet on how or if government and the DFC will do this but the Ministry of Transport is preparing for the worse, because without the Atlantic Bank cash flow, it may prove difficult for the receiver to pay for day to day operations. The Ministry has been contacting local bus operators to see if they can cover necessary run in case of an emergency.
