No investor have expressed interest in the privatization of the Sanevit Arad syringe factory

No investor has expressed interest in the privatization of the "Sanevit 2003" disposable syringes factory of Arad, as part of the last procedure initiated by the Ministry of the Economy, which took over the company in 2012 to save ut from bankruptcy, but since then, several attempts at privatization have failed, and since 2013 the plant hasn't manufactured anything, according to News.ro.

In August 2017, the Ministry of the Economy, through its Department for Privatization and Management of the State's Holdings, was announcing its intention to relaunch the operation of Sanevit 2003 Arad, in two ways, namely the acquisition of the block of shares owned by the Romanian, or by attracting investors.

The main line of business of the plant was the manufacturing of medical devices and instruments, namely disposable syringes and hypodermic needles.

Some of the advantages presented by the Ministry in the privatization announcement include the production of syringes made up of three parts, which match the international standards, flexible output, which can be adapted to manufacture other products than the ones in the main line of business, the placement of the factory facing the National Highway DN 79, its vicinity to Romania's western border, quick access to the airport, railroad and highway, as well as the innercity location of the plant in the city of Arad which includes the factory. The plot of land has a surface of 30,000 square meters, which allows the raising of new industrial buildings in the event of expanding production or of diversifying the manufactured products.

In a response sent yesterday to the News.ro agency, the Ministry of the Economy writes that steps were taken to relaunch the operation of Sanevit 2003 S.A. Arad, but no investor expressed interest.

"To that end, electronic means were used for advertising and actions were taken through advisors and economic attaches of our embassies, consulates and our own economic offices abroad. We have also had talks with potential investors at the Ministry of the Economy. So far, we have received no request for the inclusion of this company in a business system", the Ministry said.

The first privatization attempts were made by the Ministry of the Economy in 2015, three years after taking over the factory. Back then, the company had been put up for sale for a price of 32,684,998 lei, meaning 7.4 million Euros at the time. Two more auctions with no bidders were held, prior to the last privatization procedure launched last year.

All of the actions of the factory are owned by the Ministry of the Economy, which took over the factory in June 2012, to save it from bankruptcy. At the time, the delegate minister for Social Dialogue, Liviu Pop, was saying in Arad that the plant owed 7.6 million lei, for a patrimony of 8.5 million Euros.

SC Sanevit 2003 SA was set up through taking over the assets of SC Sanevit SA, based on the provisions of Emergency Ordinance no. 31/2003 concerning some financial restructuring measures concerning the receivables owned by the Authority for the Exploitation of Bank Assets on some companies from the Arad and Harghita industrial platforms, including SC Sanevit SA, which entered liquidation. At the time of its creation, the factory had a share capital of 27.6 million lei.

Inaugurated in 1995, Sanevit Arad was the first Romanian factory that manufactured disposable needles and syringes. The plan can make every year 200 million disposable syringes and over 500 million needles, but since 2013 it hasn't been making anything, and for a short while it operated at a maximum of 30% capacity.