The Privatizations Ready "in a Few Days"

The signing of the privatization contracts of the Electrica subsidiaries Banat and Dobrogea, and Petrom respectively depends only on the settling of the date between the buyers and the Romanian sellers.

Dan Ioan Popescu, the Minister of Economy and Commerce, stated yesterday that the announcement of the signings should be done simultaneously by the two sides so the buyers stock exchange list won’t have any unwished loss of synchronism. ENEL is going to sign for the two Electrica subsidiaries "probably by the end of this week, and the contract with OMV is to be signed in less than 10 days", said Popescu.

THE HOT TRIANGLE. The OMV president, Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, is to discuss today with the leader of the Petrom syndicate, Liviu Luca, today in Bucharest. The subject is expected to be "the last aspects of the employees’ problems, after the company’s privatization", Dan Ioan Popescu also said he is to take part at the discussion along side the general manager of Petrom, as the state’s representatives.

The Romanian minister also emphasized the importance of this meeting "in order that there won’t be any misunderstandings or any other discussions after the signing of the privatization contract".

SHORT DISTANCE CALL. "I have talked over the phone with Mr. Scaloni from ENEL and the company’s board has approved the privatization contracts of the Electrica subsidiaries. I am going to have another discussion with him today (yesterday) in order to settle the date of the signing of the contract", said Dan Ioan Popescu.

In his turn, by a recent approved decision, the Romanian Government also approved the contract. The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has to assign by the 20th of July the person to sign the contract on the Electrica’s side.

The total value of the transaction is 112 million euros. The two societies cover approximately 20% of the national supply of energy.

THE REPLACEMENTS’ FEVER. In the companies and institutions in the energy sector, the fever of replacements continued yesterday when Ion Merfu, who has run the Craiova subsidiary, has replaced the general manager of Transelectrica, Jean Constantinescu. Constantinescu has been assigned as the president of the National Authority of Regulation in the Energy sector (NARE) replacing Ion Lungu, who became the vice president. Other changes are to come for the managers of OPCOM - the commercial operator that is to have a very important role in the founding of the Energy Share Market.-, the Cernavoda Atomic Power Plant, NuclearInvest, and the Oltenia National Society of Lignite. Dan Ioan Popescu justified these exchanges saying they have been caused by the "new imposed coordinates by the ending of the Chapter 14 - Energy - of the negotiations with EU".