More and more countries in Europe decide to apply privatisation programmes for national companies and this process is reflected in key economic sectors. The sale of national operators becomes a benefit for the other companies which plan to access the market segment. Being thus stimulated by the accession of new operators, competitiveness will permit traffic development, not only nationally, but also internationally, increased quality of services, opportunities and freight volumes.
The past couple of months have been intensely marked by the frequent announcements of the Romanian authorities on the sale of the national freight transport operator, CFR Marfă. Therefore, the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure has announced the company that will elaborate the privatization strategy (June 2012) and in August it was presented the final strategy report on the “sale of 100% of the shares in CFR Marfă, including the shares resulted after converting the state debt of the company and part of the debt to CFR SA, to a company or consortium made of strategic and financial investors. The selection of the investor will be made through call tender with shortlisting criteria”. The sale process consists is a single phase, “the only attribution criteria of the call tender being the price offered and all conditions are included in the sale-acquisition contract”, shows the document of the ministry. To condense the privatisation schedule, the conversion phase can be implemented right in the final phase of the privatisation pro-cess and even after signing the sale-acquisition contract, but the deadline is until the finalization of the transaction and after the approval of the European Commission.
For the Ministry of Transport, CFR Marfă’s privatisation remains a priority. A public debate was organised in September 2012 on the operator’s privatisation. Even though the strategy stipulates the 100% sale of the operator, the representatives of the employees asked during the debate that the state would keep the control package in the first phase and to give it up only after the investor proved its good intentions. However, the ministry officials said that the state would sell the whole package of shares from the very beginning, but that the qualification conditions of the bidders would be much stricter than in the case of other state-owned companies proposed for privatisation (for example, Oltchim), so that individuals would no longer have access to privatisation. During the meeting, the Ge-neral Manager of the company, Constantin Zaharia, said that Polish and Czech investors had expressed their intention to take over CFR Marfă and that it was expected that the privatisation process would also draw the interest of Romanian carriers. “We have already begun to have contacts with potential investors. Polish and Czech investors have expressed their interest and we have signs that domestic carriers are also interested in discussing the matter with us”, said Zaharia.
According to Agerpres news agency, 86 companies, investment groups and banks have expressed their interest to take over the company. Initially, during the latest mission of the International Monetary Fund, the decision made referred to the sale of the majority package of the company, but then the authorities have requested and have been granted the approval of international financial institutions to fully privatise the company.
Horaţiu Buzatu, Deputy Secretary General MTI and coordinator of CFR Marfă’s activity and privatisation process, said that the privatisation process of the freight transport operator was made following a strategy which was not the final document, but the general framework, followed by specific norms.“First of all, we want to get the best possible price. Our interest is not to get rid of CFR Marfă, but the state to gain as much as possible from this privatisation”, said Buzatu.
Currently, the Romanian Ministry of Transport works on setting the market price of CFR Marfă and the privatisation will be carried out following this indicator and not the accounting value which would be of EUR 300 Million. To be mentioned is that in 2008, when the operator was proposed for privatisation, the price estimated to start the bid was of EUR 1 Billion. After the ministry presents the strategy to the government, the privatisation committee will be established to elaborate the company’s description file.
The company’s performance improved in 2011, compared to 2009 and 2010, but it is still under the level of previous years. The turnover dropped by 3.8% in 2010, but increased by 8.9% in 2011, while operating costs reduced by 22.8% in 2010 and by 14.4% in 2011. Nevertheless, in 2011, CFR Marfă had total debts of RON 1.89 Billion (EUR 421.6 Million), of which, RON 1.5 Billion (EUR 338.7 Million) current debts. According to latest data, in June 2012, the company’s debt to the state budget, social insurance budget and CFR SA was estimated at RON 1.37 Billion (around EUR 302 Million).
As part of the transport activity, one of the important collaborations of CFR Marfă is its partnership with Ford, which is a benefit both financially and from the point of view of road traffic decongestion in the area. Therefore, the railway operator has operated the first two trains with Ford cars to Europe on the route Craiova – Genk (Belgium) and Craiova – Koln (Germany), each train having 19 wagons with 266 cars. By the end of September, the company carried 1,600 cars. From the point of view of the shipped freight volume, the operator’s position in the Romanian railway transport market is dominant. CFR Marfă owns most container terminals and all locomotive depots serving the freight transport. Also, it holds a rolling stock fleet of over 39,000 wagons, of which around 23,000 are used, and 900 locomotives, such assets placing the company in a favourable position as compared to other state-owned operators in the central and south-eastern European area.
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