Siemens and Karsdorfer in the race for Electroputere

Siemens and Karsdorfer Eisenbahngesellschaft are the other two companies that entered the race for the privatisation of Electroputere Company, the Privatisation Authority (APAPS) said at the end of last week.

The other companies to have bought the task book so far are US-based General Electric and General Motors, with APAPS having announced there were four buyers interested.

Market sources say one of the two American giants will participate in the privatisation along with the PAS Electroputere Employees’ Association, all the more reason since both General Electric and General Motors have worked with the locomotive producer in the past.

The deadline for bids to buy the 62.46% in the Craiova-based plant put up for sale by the Privatisation Authority is June 15. Electroputere Company is included in the PSAL component for privatising five large state-run companies through international investment banks.

The representatives of the above-mentioned companies last week had talks with the APAPS minister Ovidiu Musetescu, in order to ensure a correct and transparent transaction.

The presentation brief of the company costs 75 million lei, while the value of the participation guarantee reaches 7.7bn lei.

The trend of the Electroputere shares, listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange was influenced by the incoming privatisation news.

Prior to APAPS’ announcement about selling its stake by bid, Electroputere fluctuated between 200-400 lei. Electroputere Craiova logged 945 million lei in losses at the end of Q1, 2001, against 4.04bn lei in net profit in the year-ago period.