AFTER TWO FAILED PRIVATIZATIONS WITH STRATEGIC INVESTORS, THE GOVERNMENT IS FINALLY CONSIDERING THE STOCK EXCHANGE  Marius Bostan, MCSI: "We are evaluating the possibility of an IPO of the Romanian Postal Office"

The Ministry of Communications is reviewing the possibility of getting the Romanian Postal Office listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, after the privatization process failed, in autumn last year, according to the statements of minister Marius Bostan, made on Friday, after a meeting with prime-minister Dacian Cioloş.

Mr. Bostan said: "The Romanian Postal Office is a company that has over 27,000 employees and we are decided to launch a restructuring plan and a management plan for a longer period of time to make this company a flag-bearer of the Romanian economy. When I am talking about restructuring, I am not referring to layoffs: I won't be the one to let people go at the Postal Office".

In September, the Minister of the Information Society has announced that bpost, the bidder that was selected for the sale of the 51% of the shares of the Postal Office National Company, has not submitted a binding offer by the deadline (September 15th, 2015, 12:00 PM).

The privatization of the postal office has also failed in 2013, due to lack of competitors.

The option of the privatization of the Postal Office has been previously suggested, even as the negotiations with Belgian Bpost were under way.

Alexandru Petrescu, the managing director of the Romanian Postal Office, further told us in May 2015 that the listing on the IPO is plan "B", if the privatization fails.

In September 2015, Dante Stein, the president of the Romanian Postal Office, told us that he praises the failure of the privatization with Bpost: "The non-binding offer submitted by Bpost a few months ago did not generate sufficient value for the end shareholders of the Romanian postal office, namely, the Romanian citizens. Now, we have to look towards the future and strengthen the Romanian postal office.

We have to invest in the necessary upgrade of the technologies, to increase the management capabilities, to lead certain departments and revenue sources as profit centers and eventually, to initiate an IPO.

But we should only make the IPO when we have the greatest valuation possible of the company, perhaps five times higher than today's value. Then we will be able to say that we have provided a service to the shareholders, in other words to Romania's citizens".

Ludwik Sobolewski, the CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, has also served on the Board of the Romanian Postal Office, but was replaced on July 15th 2015.

From the very takeover of his position on the Board of Exchange, Sobolewski expected his term to be a short one. The BSE CEO was saying in 2014: "I have accepted this position (ed. note: of chairman of the Postal Office). Most likely it will be for a short period of time, because the Postal Office will go through a privatization process. I don't see my term extending beyond the time it takes for the company to get ready for privatization. When it gets closer to the privatization it will be better for me to resign, because this process may take place through an IPO".

In November, the Romanian Postal Office and Nextebank have announced that they have completed the negotiations concerning the intermediation of bank services and products in the retail network of the national postal services operator, and recently, Poşta Română Broker de Asigurare (PRBA) has announced that starting with January, it will enter the online insurance market as well.