Romania offers state aid for Bosch and De'Longhi's new investments in the country

The Romanian Government is considering offering state aid to German group Bosch, which is preparing a EUR 77 million investment in the Cluj area of Romania, and for De'Longhi's planned take over of the former Nokia factory at the same site. Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc (in picture, right) recently met Fabio de'Longhi (in picture, left), CEO of De'Longhi and Guenther Gauß, executive vice-president of Bosch's Automotive Electronics, which secured 215,000 sqm near Cluj, at Jucu, where it plans to create 300 new jobs in a first phase.

“The Government is open to support investments that generate jobs, including through state aid in the case of the Bosch group. I am glad that Bosch will expand its Romanian investments to Cluj, especially given the shutdown of the Nokia factory,” said the PM. Both De’Longhi and Bosch are expected to start activity at Jucu in the first half of this year. Bosch has investments in three other Romanian cities: Bucharest, Timisoara and Blaj. The company’s turnover was of EUR 161 million in 2010 in Romania. According to a statement from the company, Bosch Group posted sales of EUR 51.4 billion in 2011, up 8.8 percent over 2010. For 2012, the company expects its sales to grow by 3 to 5 percent. Household appliances producer De’Longhi has agreed to buy Nokia’s production facility in Romania, after the Finnish mobile phone producer decided to close down the factory and relocate production from its facility at Jucu, in Cluj county. The transaction is expected to be finalized during the first quarter of 2012. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com (photo source: Gov.ro)