Employees of "Electrica" looking to borrow money to buy stock in the company

The Ministry of the Economy intends to sell the minority stakes it holds in the privatized branches of "Electrica" SA. This intensified the negotiations concerning the sale of 8-10% stakes to employees of the privatized branches, from which the state is looking to make its exit.

When asked if the employees have raised the money needed to acquire the shares they are entitled to (in the branches of Electrica Banat, Dobrogea, Moldova and Muntenia Sud, Adolf Mureşan, the chairman of the "Univers" Federation, said: "The employees have set up two non-profit companies by which they will distribute the shares. In the previous years, people had money put into bank deposits which paid high interest rates. Of course, those funds aren"t sufficient to pay for the acquisition of the shares that will be made available and it will be up to every employee to decide how many shares they want to buy. Most of them intend to borrow money from banks or from their family and acquaintances".

He said that prior to the financial crisis, two employee associations discussed the alternative of taking out one loan from a bank, possibly by using the stock as collateral. But the talks stopped after banks cut down on lending.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of the Economy has scheduled a new talk about the government ordnance which includes the norms regulating the sale of the shares of Electrica. The employees of the company will ask the Government to provide a 3-year deadline for the share acquisition process.

The employee associations have never disclosed the amounts they have available to use for the acquisition of Electrica shares, but have often expressed their interest in acquiring the shares. The employees would need to come up with 100 million Euros to buy the 10% stakes in Electrica Banat, Electrica Dobrogea, Electrica Muntenia Sud and Electrica Moldova. The most valuable of the privatized companies is Muntenia Sud, which had a market value of 866 million Euros at the time of the deal between the state and the ENEL group.