The electoral year will slow down privatisations

The state will not complete the sale of the companies included in the privatisation plan for this year, because of the organisation of local and parliamentary elections, the process will be postponed for 2009, said, yesterday, Ioana Filipescu, general manager of Raiffeisen Investment.

The Authority for Valorification of the State Actives (AVAS) included in the privatisation plan for 2008 a number of 60 companies, among others Oltchim, IAR Brasov, Antibiotice Iaşi or Craiova Power Plant.

"It is known that on electoral years the privatisation process stagnates. So, I think that Oltchim, CFR Marfa and other companies that the state wants to sell will be privatized in 2009", said Filipescu. Even if 2009 is also an electoral year, presidential elections will be held, the Raiffeisen Investment boss thinks that the privatisation process will not be affected, because the main institution involved in it, the government, will be functional.

Leaders in transactions

Privatisatons represented last year a small procent, only 3%, of the entire number of aquisitions and merges in Romania, estimated by Raiffaisen Investment to 120 transactions. Privatisations represented 126 millions euro, of the total volume of the transactions of 6.5 billions euro.

The entire level of transactions puts Romania among the first five countries in Central and Eastern Europe, ahead of Poland and Ukraine. In front of Romania is Russia, with about 70 billions euro, Hungary, with 14 billions euro, Turkey, with 11.7 billions euro and Austria, with 9.1 billions euro.