Even though the plant owes over 700 million Euros Dan Voiculescu, among those interested in the takeover of Oltchim

• Vulpescu: At least five investors are tempted by the plant of Vâlcea

• The privatization of Oltchim without the conversion of the debt towards the AVAS into equity, approved by the Government

• The OPSPI will negotiate with "Petrom" an option for the sale of "Arpechim"

• Vulpescu: The receivables of AVAS and Electrica, negotiated "at the market"

The clock is counting down on the privatization of "Oltchim", but the head of the OPSPI, Remus Vulpescu, is optimistic that he will find a buyer for the company, as the government yesterday approved his proposal - the privatization without the conversion of the debt towards the AVAS into equity.

Even though it fought for years for this conversion, including with the European Commission, the Romanian state is abandoning this procedure because it was an inadequate strategy, said Remus Vulpescu.

"I have full confidence that we will meet the deadline set by the IMF for the privatization of Oltchim (ed. note: September 26, 2012)", the head of the OPSPI said yesterday, adding that "more than five investors" bought the presentation folder.

This would allude that interest in the company has increased, because in spring, only four non-binding commitments had been filed, by TISE (Russia), PCC SE (Germany), Pegamont Ploieşti and Aisa Invest of Cluj, a company controlled by businessman Ştefan Vuza.

It would seem that businessman Dan Voiculescu also wants to participate in the privatization, according to some sources, as well as Azeri company SOCAR (Azerbaijan) and other companies from the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

Remus Vulpescu declined to mention any names, and only confined himself to saying repeatedly: "Anyone can participate in the privatization".

According to the spokesperson of the Government, Andrei Zaharescu, the Government has approved the change of the strategy for the privatization of "Oltchim", through the collective sale of the government's stake in the plant and of the receivables of the AVAS and Electrica, amounting to 1.8 billion lei, 56% of the company's debt.

Also, the MECMA, through the OPSPI, will negotiate with OMV Petrom an option to acquire assets from Arpechim Piteşti, exercisable by the winner of the call for tenders.

Remus Vulpescu considers that, through this privatization method, the chances of the company seeing its future improve increase.

The "Oltchim" will be assigned at the market value, he said.

• The head of the OPSPI and the minority shareholders of PCC SE, at each other's throats

The revelations made by Remus Vulpescu in the press about the negotiations with the minority shareholders of Oltchim PCC SE have led to a true war, which for now has only remained confined to making statements, but with odds of escalating in court.

According to Vulpescu, PCC offered to pay 42 million Euros for the block of shares of Oltchim, and the wiping of the state's debt. Vulpescu also mentioned a protocol between PCC and the Romanian state, which the former signed and then took back, which they later replaced with another one which contained "outrageous demands".

• PCC SE: The head of the OPSPI has broken the law, by revealing confidential information

PCC SE reacted very harshly, saying that it will consider taking the Romanian state to court for violating the law of privatization and for harming the position of PCC SE as part of the privatization process.

Wojciech Zaremba, the representative of PCC SE in Romania, said: "PCC SE finds it unacceptable that a representative of the Romanian state would deliberately disseminate made-up information in the press, blaming PCC for the failure of the negotiations and for the withdrawal of the protocol by PCC, which is completely untrue.

PCC is extremely surprised by the fact that a representative of the Romanian state, involved in the privatization process of Oltchim, has revealed confidential information concerning the privatization process.

Remus Vulpescu, as a representative of the Romanian state, has broken his duty to ensure an equal treatment of the buyers, as the law expressly stipulates".

According to him, PCC SE has thus been placed in a vulnerable, inferior position compared to all its competitors involved in the privatization process, which means that other possible participants in the call for tenders can adjust their price in the final offers based on the bid by PCC SE revealed by the head of the OPSPI.

"The principle of confidentiality, which the Romanian state is required by law to honor, has also been gravely violated by the OPSPI, the institution designated to handle the privatization of Oltchim", Mr. Zaremba also said: "PCC SE wants to stress that, according to the European standards and the Romanian legislation concerning the privatization procedure, during the privatization process, the official representatives of the Romanian state involved in the privatization process must refrain from any kind of comments and not to reveal privileged information from the negotiation process, which could harm the companies participating in the call for tenders".

• Remus Vulpescu, OPSPI: "I deny all the accusations they are making"

Remus Vulpescu, the head of the OPSPI, said that he rejects all the accusations made by PCC and he said that the privatization is not held up by PCC.

He said: "That negotiation was rejected before I made those statements. There is no way I can place them in a position of inferiority because the only awarding criteria is the price which is being offered. Any of the parties involved can only be placed in a position of inferiority based on the price they are offering".

According to him, on August 2nd, PCC SE sent a protocol, which was acceptable, and then, before the government even had the time to sign it, it sent in another one which featured excessive demands: "The former document could have represented a constructive approach by PCC, as proven by the fact that, through the privatization announcement which we published, we announced the conditions for making the conversion ourselves, and which matched their demands. But we didn't do it because we were required to, we did it because it would have been legal and constructive. They withdrew that protocol before it was signed, and on August 13th, they sent in another one, which included exaggerated claims".

When asked why the government didn't sign the first protocol between August 2nd and August 13th, Remus Vulpescu replied: "You know very well what the political schedule is like, the minister has a lot of things to do at the ministry, he was the co-president of the USL, he works 18 hours a day.

Furthermore, the document also had to be reviewed by two more commissions, a complex review needed to be conducted.

Given the back history with PCC, everyone wanted to conduct a careful review".

On April 30th, PCC SE owned 18.32% of the share capital of "Oltchim", and 14.02% indirectly, through "Nachbar Services Limited".