Romanian PM and Siemens discuss Electroputere privatisation

April 8, 2005 The Romanian Prime Minister, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu discussed on Thursday the involvement of Siemens in regard to the privatisation of Romanian locomotive company Electroputere.

Electroputere, which is based in the southern Romanian city of Craiova, remains one of the largest state-owned companies in Romania after the fairly rapid privatisation process of 2003 and 2004. There have been attempts to privatise the locomotive manufacturer for a long time, yet all of them failed. However, Gabriel Zbircea, the president of the Authority for the Recovery of State Assets (AVAS) declared in March of this year that they would resume the privatisation process by dividing the company into four divisions, each to be sold separately.

Siemens is expected to be a major potential buyer of Electroputere, especially regarding the magnitude of deals in transport infrastructure that the Romanian government has conducted up until now with the German corporation.