Cotolvea: the Romanian Post returns to profit in 2014

The successive financial loss recorded by the Romanian Post in recent years have come to an end, according to Razvan Cotolvea, Minister for Information Society, who anticipates profit of 65 million lei for the current year, reads Mediafax.

“After losses in previous years, the Romanian Post will reach a profit of 65 million euro in 2014. At the beginning of the year, we were hoping to end the year without any loss, albeit zero profit, but the figures indicate that the company’s management has done its job”,stated Cotolvea at the press conference announcing the launch of the Romanian Post Insurance Broker.

In 2013, the company controlled by the Ministry for Information Society posted financial loss of some 29.4 million lei, maintaining the negative evolution recorded in the previous years. In the past three years, the aggregated loss exceeded 260 million lei, whereas the cumulated revenues amounted to approximately 3.6 billion lei, indicate the data available on the Ministry of Finance's website.

As for the foreseen privatization of the Romanian Post, Razvan Cotolvea said that bpost, the sole company which engaged in the privatization procedure, is expected to submit a biding offer for taking over the majority stake next spring, in March-April 2015, the same source mentions. The Minister explained that as the company needs about 100 million euro funds for new technologies and modernization, investment to be implemented in the coming 5 to 6 years, so the offer that bpost will put forward will be carefully analyzed and only if viable, the privatization agreement will be concluded

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.