Economy Minister says Romania’s Oltchim will not be shut down, it will be privatized

Insolvent Romanian state-owned chemical producer Oltchim in Ramnicu Valcea will not be shut down, and if the privatization set for June 6 fails, the company will be sold later, according to Economy Minister Constantin Nita. He added that Oltchim should no longer accumulate losses and in order to accomplish this objective, the company must find financing to restart one or two production lines, according to Mediafax. The Romanian state is the main shareholder of Oltchim. The company entered insolvency in January 2013. Oltchim’s legal administrator wants to sell the company’s viable assets, debt free, in order to repay some of the creditors. The sale has already been postponed some five months as it was supposed to happen in January, as there were no formal offers for the chemical plant. The assets were valued at EUR 305 million, in December 2013, but the minimum price for the privatization was set at EUR 160 million. The company had a turnover of RON 136.2 million (EUR 30.2 million) in the first quarter of 2014, up 64.7 percent against the same period of the previous year. It had losses of RON 56.2 million (EUR 12.4 million), down 34.6 percent year-on-year. Irina Popescu@romania-insider.com