Balan has been running Oltchim since October 2012.
On February 7, 2013, Economy Minister Varujan Vosganian had a meeting with Balan and thanked the latter for running Oltchim until the appointment of legal administrators and of a special administrator at the chemical plant. The two decided at the meeting that Balan would run Oltchim for another 30- day period at the end of which the company’s shareholders would elect a new manager.
Vosganian said this week that he has proposed Bogdan Stanescu, advisor to central bank deputy governor Bogdan Olteanu, as special administrator of Oltchim.
Vosganian has recently said Romania has received several offers for the privatization of Oltchim from companies active in the field, as well as from Romanian firms and raw material and product traders.
Oltchim entered insolvency at the end of January after the state failed to privatize the company. Oltchim is 54.8% owned by the state, through the Economy Ministry. The state’s stake was auctioned off for some EUR45 million on September 21, 2012, but the winner, Dan Diaconescu, a controversial local politician, failed to produce the money by the October 1 deadline.