New board hopes Romanian railways operator CFR will return to profit in 2016

Romania's state owned railways company CFR could be back in profit in the first quarter of 2016, according to company officials. Last year, CFR had a loss of EUR 136 million, and its recently appointed board targets 2016 as the year when the company will post a small operational profit, according to Lucian Isar, president of the board.

The CFR administration plan should be approved or rejected by the Transport Ministry on April 19. The new board wants CFR to support operations via its own expenses and cut expenses so as more is allotted to maintenance and repairing to the railroad. In the first quarter of the year, CFR renegotiated contracts and started recruiting 11 managers, as well as selling EUR 2 million of iron waste at the Commodities Exchange. In the first quarter of 2013, CFR had an accounting profit of EUR 23 million, compared to a loss of EUR 4.5 million in the same quarter of 2013, but the company still posts operational losses. CFR, which runs the railroad infrastructure in Romania, has to recover some EUR 556 million in debt from the other railway companies, freight and passengers, CFR Marfa and CFR Calatori respectively. From private railways operators, CFR has to recover some EUR 16 million. Lucian Isar, the former minister delegate for the business environment, was appointed president of CFR SA in December last year. The president of real estate developer Impact, Dimitrios Sophocleous, who previously served as manager with companies such as Romtelecom or A&D Pharma, was recently named general manager of state-owned Romanian company CFR. His naming is part of the program to place private managers at state companies. This came after business expert and TV anchor Niels Schnecker turned down the GM position, however he is now one of the members of the board with CFR. The association PwC-D&B David and Baias-George Butunoiu won in July 2012 the bid to place private managers at Romanian state companies under the Transport Ministry, and which have a turnover above EUR 7.3 million. editor@romania-insider.com