Baicusi leaves Transelectrica with 14m-euro losses

After a less than two-year term, Adrian Baicusi, general manager of Transelectrica leaves the helm of the company, and is set to be replaced by Stelian Gal, who has run Transelectrica before.

Baicusi was brought to the helm of the national energy transmission company by former Economy Minister Adriean Videanu, after previously working as general manager of Siemens Romania. His move at the time, going from the private to the public sector, was surprising. At Siemens, Baicusi had an over 20,000-euro monthly salary, according to his wealth statement, while his Transelectrica salary was capped at 1,600 euros. The company’s results at the end of his term are not very good, with Transelectrica reporting 14 million-euro losses in the first half of the year, compared with an over 2 million-euro profit in the similar period of last year. Transelectrica’s main problem remains its high level of foreign currency loans, which led to major financial losses.

“Nobody will lend to them for at least a year because of the level of financial losses, and they do need a lot of money for investments in the grid,” say sources from the energy market.