"Investing on the stock market should be a rule for those with money in banks or under the mattress"

For the economy to grow, we need as many privatizations on the stock exchange as possible, listings of great companies and a sustained education at the national level, so that the investment in the stock market becomes a rule for people who have cash available and keep it in banks or "under the mattress", says Mr. Dorel Goia, the majority shareholder of the Teraplast Group. He gave us a small interview, in which he talked about the evolution of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), as well as about the expectations that he has from the state.

Reporter: You are one of the most respected investors in Cluj. What expectations do you have from the authorities as businessman?

Dorel Goia: We need predictability. Let's not change the rules of game except very rarely. For example, we have become accustomed to the fact that interest rates are very low. Over the years we have paid as high as 180% on bank loans. Now, 3% feels like nothing to us. I want nothing more than that. Also, 16% profit tax is perfect. It can even be 18%, but it should stay at 18% for a number of years, because otherwise we can't make business plans. We lose our confidence.

Reporter: In this context, how do you see all the changes announced lately, both on the fiscal side, as well as where the salaries are concerned?

Dorel Goia: In the case of skilled workers, they migrate from the private sector to the public one, and in the case of those with median skills - from Romania abroad or across Romania, to other companies in the same city. These are self-regulating systems. We raise the salaries to stop emigration or migration between companies, in the same locality, usually. In our case, that of Teraplast the skilled workforce never goes to the state, because they get better pay than they do in the public sector. The level of salaries that we pay is above the market level in the localities in question. Thus, we adapt, we do what is opportune to do.

Reporter: Teraplast is a company listed on the stock market. What is your take on the evolution of the Romanian stock market?

Dorel Goia: The country we live in and the times that we are going through can be explained by the fact that in Romania, we, the ones who do business, are first generation investors, because our parents did not do business; we are city dwellers because we did not have an industrial revolution before Ceauşescu; we don't know how to be generous because we are the first generation that does that; our stock market is in its childhood because most citizens have no economic education and don't understand that they can invest on the stock market. Thus, we don't know how to invest on the stock market because we have no specific education, as once again, we are the first generation that has to deal with the stock market again. Everything is still in the beginning.

Under these circumstances, we need as many privatizations on the stock exchange as possible, listings of major companies and a sustained education on a national level so that the investment on the capital market becomes a rule for citizens who have financial resources and currently keeping them in banks only, or even worse, "under the mattress".

Reporter: And who is going to educate us?

Dorel Goia: We the business sector and you - the economic press - have to make education for those who have liquidity available to stop buying apartments as the final solution for protecting their savings, when we know what the interest rates are like - and to direct them to invest in the stock market. This is our and your fault, and the other's fault is that they don't list on the stock market state companies that need to be listed and doesn't make privatizations through the stock market when possible. There is also the management of the BSE, which does too little to present the possibilities. Therefore we all are equally guilty.

Reporter: What is your opinion on Romcab filing for insolvency?

Dorel Goia: We hope that this company will continue its operation, because Romcab was one of the biggest players, and its output was almost entirely exported, because it provided over 500 jobs in Târgu Mureş and because it paid a profit tax. In the end, the insolvency of Romcab has been a loss for the economy of the county of Mureş, as well as for the national economy. This company has been reborn from its ashes once or twice before, and this time, I don't know the list of creditors, because I only have information from the press and those have been contradictory. At any rate, in the end it is the creditors who will decide on the future of that company.

Reporter: What is your cooperation with the banking system like?

Dorel Goia: The banking system is also in its first generation, but we are glad that there is no longer a dictatorship of banks like we used to have in the first years after the revolution, when all we had was five state owned banks. Now banks respect us, bank clerks respect us, everybody wants to work with us - and I am not talking just about Teraplast, but the entire economy -, because in the end, we all need each other. The lending terms are very good and we can say that the groundwork has been made for an accelerated speed.

Currently, the banking market is too crowded and definitely what happened once, namely bank defaults, will happen again.

Reporter: In that case, how do you protect yourself from a possible bail-in measure, in our banking system?

Dorel Goia: That scenario is so remote that the issue isn't even discussed in these terms. Preventively, we only have loans from one bank, among the second two largest in the country. We have always gone for top size suppliers, from commodities to loans or deposits. And if a company is too big to fail, it's preferable to work with it.

Reporter: Thank you!