Some companies cannot be privatised

Some of the 23 companies to shed jobs by the end of June will not be possible to privatise and will be closed, Ovidiu Musetescu, Privatisation minister yesterday said.
“Some of them will unfortunately be closed. It is not us that will close them, it is just life and the market. The law does not allow me to extend the financial supervision beyond the six months from the date it was introduced, which varies from one company to another. At any rate, the supervision expires in July or August for all of them. From that moment on, they will be at the creditors’ disposal, which everybody agrees to, because bankruptcy was not invented in Romania, after all, it was invented where Romania wants to go,” Musetescu said.
He added that once in the hands of creditors, the companies would probably go into liquidation, which “unfortunately for Romania, means taking them apart, selling them as separate assets instead of trying to sell them as a whole.”
The total losses built up by the companies to shed jobs are worth some 18,000bn ROL, that is nearly $600 million.
The 23-company list includes Siderurgica, Tractorul and Roman.
Musetescu says the Privatisation Authority (APAPS) has tried maximising the privatisation chances of these companies but does not rule out the possibility of a failure.
“We believe every company has something viable left in it. Even Siderurgica has something viable left. This is why it is hard to understand why the unions here specialise in break-ups and turnarounds and are now telling us how to break up the company,” he added. Siderurgica Hunedoara registers $260 million debts, about 20 times higher than the market value of all its assets.
As for Tractorul, the Brasov-based tractor maker, in which Italian Landini Group has expressed interest, the minister feels things are crystal clear: it is an integrated factory that can be bought as it is. Its only problem is the lack of an outlet.
“I’m seeing Landini chairman this week. He has already met with the Prime Minister and with the Industry minister. The group is already carrying out an investment in Buzau, where it wants to assemble tractors. It has probably become interested to move from assembling to producing tractors in Romania, as well,” Musetescu says.
The company has built up 4,600bn ROL debts and its 6,800 employees made about 4,000 tractors last year, although the plant can make 32,000 a year.
Whereas somebody is interested to buy Tractorul, the Roman plant, which registers about 3,000bn ROL debts, has not aroused anybody’s interest so far. This is why APAPS wants to private the truck plant as an industrial park. “Reality has shown us this platform has a lot of unused utilities, facilities and spaces. They will never be possible to use for making trucks only, but maybe they can be used for making related products,” the Privatisation minister said, adding the land and the facilities at Roman were worth more than the business itself.
miruna.lebedencu@zf.ro