According to Ponta, the privatization contract will not be signed unless the auction winner commits to keeping all jobs and not changing the scope of Oltchim’s activity.
Romania has delayed until September 20 the deadline by which investors may file bids for the privatization of Oltchim, an official of the Economy Ministry said Monday.
“The deadline has been moved to 12:00 pm Thursday, September 20,” said Remus Vulpescu, head of the ministry’s privatization office OPSPI.
The initial deadline was set for Monday at noon, but the ministry decided to extend the procedures to partly accommodate a request made by representatives of Russian giant Gazprom, which recommended the auction be put off by two weeks.
Oltchim’s privatization is prerequisite for the disbursement of further installments of a EUR3.6 billion loan agreement signed with the IMF.
The company is majority owned by the Economy Ministry, with a 54.8% stake, while Germany’s PCC SE holds an 18.32% stake.
So far, the ministry received three offers for Oltchim, from PCC SE and local businessmen Dan Diaconescu and Stefan Vuza.
Under the current privatization strategy, Oltchim’s potential buyer would also have to take over total receivables of 1.8 billion lei (EUR401 million) held by the state. The chemical company has total debts worth over RON2.5 billion.