Team of technocrats appointed at the helm of soon-to-be-privatized CFR Marfa railway freight company

Romania's rail freight company CFR Marfa has installed a new leadership team of economists, engineers and legal counsels, who will not have a direct role in the privatization process, but who will have to fix what can be fixed in the company. The Transport Minister Relu Fenechiu recently announced the new team, made up of economist and banker Aysun Mustafa, who will be the president of the board, while legal counsel Alexandru Dragoş Drăghici will be the general manager. The other administrators are Liviu Radu (engineer), Bogdan Constantinescu (economist), Dan Constantinescu (engineer), Ionuţ Georgescu (legal counsel) and Dan Belcea (economist). The Transport Minister said he does not know the new team personally, as they have been chosen based on their CVs. The chosen team is made of technocrats, and not politicians, so they will be able to focus not on political campaigning and communication, but on results, Fenechiu further said. The activity of the new managers could last until July or slightly longer, with the deadline for announcing winners in the CFR Marfa privatization set for June 20, but with chances of delay in the transfer of ownership. Seven – eight companies have shown interest in the privatization of CFR Marfa so far, the minister went on, without disclosing more details. Lower debt and an investor test will be the pre-requisites for Romania selling off its rail freight company CFR Marfa, with the privatization process which started in the beginning of February. Both of them need to be first approved by the European Commission. CFR Marfa's debt end-2011 was some EUR 420 million, and over EUR 280 million of it was to the state budget or public institutions. Recently, the Transport Ministry estimated that the state should get some EUR 61.5 million from the sale of its 51 percent package in CFR Marfa, after paying all the legal privatization expenses. But Transport Minister Relu Fenechiu recently said the sum is “somebody's incorrect interpretation,” which is based on revenues from previous privatizations. editor@romania-insider.com