Two investors, a Romanian and a foreign one, are negotiating with the Czech firm Zelezarny Veseli a contract for the cession of Tepro Iasi stock the company bought from the State Ownership Fund (SOF), Alin Giurgiu, SOF general executive director, stated on Monday.
Giurgiu stated that SOF initiated a legal action against Zelezerny Veseli company to the end of canceling the privatisation contract, as, in line with contract clauses, the issuing-bank Citibank does not vouch for the bills through which the Czechs guaranteed the investments in Tepro.
SOF has regained its position as a minority shareholder in Tepro Iasi, after the court ruled in its favour within the trial against Zelezerny Veseli shareholders and SIF Moldova, contesting the decision of the General Assembly of Shareholders to include in the company’s share capital some land belonging to the state.
“This allows us to intervene with pertinent decisions in the company’s evolution,” Alin Giurgiu stated.
The identification of other investors that could take over the privatisation contract from the Czech investor will save the company that is currently registering significant losses. At the end of last year, Tepro’s losses amounted to 66 billion lei and its debts stood at 187 billion lei.
Starting August 1, 524 of the 1476 employees of Tepro will be laid off, in line with a restructuring plan AGA approved at the end of last week.
The general director of Tepro Iasi, Victor Balan, stated that before effectively initiating layoffs, all the legal stages will be observed and the unit’s trade union will be informed in due time on this situation.
“Staff layoffs will mostly affect auxiliary sectors and will take into account professional criteria. We need a team of professional people,” Tepro manager added.
Following the restructuring plan, the company’s management hopes that work productivity will increase from 55 tones of pipe annually per employee up to 97 tones. Another decision made during the last AGA (General Assembly of Shareholders) was to “split” Tepro into four profit centres, which will enjoy autonomy as far as cost management and potential orders are concerned. “Such a procedure is applied by any big company in the world. A giant company like ours has huge expenses and many of them are not grounded, which leads to price increase. We often lose contracts with foreign companies for this particular reason,” Tepro general manger explained.
Iasi-based company Tepro was privatised in 1998, when Czech company Zelezarny Vesely bought the main stake owned by SOF (State Ownership Fund) for 3 million dollars. After privatisation, the company’s Management Board decided to gradually lay off part of its employees, which generated trade union dissatisfaction.