The EUR375,000 will be paid in 14 tranches, corresponding to each stage of the contract. The Transport Ministry will be liable for delays in the payment of the consultants’ bills, being required to pay penalties of 0.04% per day, though no more than 25% of the total fee.
Transport Minister Alexandru Nazare will appoint the privatization committee, comprising nine members and a secretariat of five members. Each will be paid up to 3,000 lei (EUR685) gross per month.
The contract will expire at the end of the year, but may be extended. A confidentiality clause will remain in effect up to three years afterwards.
Romania plans to sell its majority stake in the rail operator by the end of October, “possibly with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and of the International Financial Corporation,” according to the country’s latest letter of intent to a EUR3.6 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
CFR Marfa is the tenth-largest freight rail operator in Europe, with total transport volume of 31 million tons in 2010.
The company posted a loss of 133.5 million lei (EUR30.5 million) in 2011, narrower from RON535.3 million in the previous year, preliminary financial data showed. CFR Marfa has total debts worth RON1.25 billion (EUR286 million) and employs 8,270 staff.
Deloitte is a member of U.S. group Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the world’s largest consultancy, audit, accounting and financial services providers, with 170,000 employees and revenues of $26.6 billion in the 2010 fiscal year. Deloitte’s Romanian offices are located in Bucharest, Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca.
Musat & Asociatii is one of the largest Romanian law firms.
Systra is a French consultancy company specializing in railway and public transport, set up in 1997 through the merger of Sofrerail (a branch of the French national rail company) and Sofretu (a branch of the Paris transport authority). The two companies each hold 36% in Systra, with the remaining 28% in the hands of a number of banks. (EUR1=RON4.3778)