Al-Arrab breaks the wallet open to pay for the main stake in Romania’s Electroputere Craiova

The company paid 2,34 million euros for the 78,009,632 shares representing 62.8259 percent of Electroputere's share capital.

The rest of the shares were sold several years ago, through the Mass Privatization Program. The company had been among the very few post-communist state-owned"dinosaurs" owing to increasing losses.

Al-Arrab Contracting assumed investments exceeding 23 million euros. Some 37 million euros will represent the work capital. The Saudi-based investor also assumed the company’s debts, of 44 million euros. Another 15.2 million euros stand for bank guarantees.

Electroputere’s production capacity will increase five times until 2012, the head of Al-Arrab Contracting, Said Bahjat Said noted.

Yet, the privatization contract does not force Al-Arrab Contracting to keep the core activity of the Romanian-based company. A deadline for the payment of debts was not inserted in the contract, according to the AVAS head, Teodor Atanasiu.

The contract does not force the Saudi company to keep the current 2,600 employees.

Source: NewsIn