Belgium’s postal services operator submits non-biding offer for privatization of the Romanian Post

Belgian postal services operator bpost is the sole company which put forward a non-biding offer for the privatization of the Romanian Post. The offer was submitted on September 30, the last day of the allocated time frame and in case it is selected by the Ministry for Information Society, negotiations could be initiated without any obligation of coming up with a biding offer.

”The Belgian operator’s decision today is a prerequisite for a successful privatization (...) It also reflects a consistent, transparent and truthful path followed by the Privatization Commission within the past two years (...) We are pleased to have a bidder who meets all the desired qualities of a major shareholder of the national postal services operator”, stated Alexandru Petrescu, CEO the Romanian Post, as per a press release.

The next step, subsequent to bpost’s offer, is converting all outstanding debts the Romanian Post has to the state budget into equity, the precondition for submitting the non-biding offer. Also, the state-owned company will prepare the data room and all the related documents for the privatization process.

“I salute the decision of bpost, one of the postal operators with the most solid business profile in Europe (...) By putting forward the offer for acquiring 51 percent of the shares of the Romanian Post we can conclude that the first step in privatizing the company was successfully carried out (...) There is a long way to finalize the negotiations, but I assure you that all talks will be based on transparency, professionalism and care towards all employees of the Post”, said Razvan Cotovelea, the Minister for Information Society.

The selection process of the investor will be carried out by sealed tender method, combined with public call tender, preceded by negotiations carried based on preliminary non-binding offers submitted by the potential investors. Provided bpost is selected, in the due diligence phase the Belgian postal services operator will gain access to the data room, to the company’s management, will be granted operational visits and will negotiate the privatization agreement. Once the due diligence process is completed, bpost could submit a final biding-offer for taking over the major stake in the Romanian Post.

In late 2012, Romania’s Government decided to proceed with the privatization of the Romanian Post, yet, the initiative has been unsuccessful up to this point, the authorities recording several failed attempts to sell the majority stake in the Romanian Post. The privatization is expected to be eventually carried out in 2014. The Government aims at transferring 51 percent of the company’s shares to a private investor following a capital increase. In view of the planned privatization, the company has been working on increasing operational efficiency by reducing working hours, hiring part-time workers, reducing the retail network, cutting down expenses through a more flexible labor supply.

The Romanian Post, the major player in the domestic market, is controlled by the Romanian State through the Ministry for Information Society which is the major shareholder (75 percent of the total shares), the remainder 25 percent being held by Fondul Proprietatea.