PCC: "AVAS Gives Up to the Conversion of the Debts into "Olchim" Shares.

The State Assets Valorification Authority (AVAS) abandoned the capital increase of Olchim Company Ramnicu Valcea, being its major shareholder, after converting the debts in shares, Wojciech Zaremba, PCC Business Development Director, the minority shareholder of the company, considers. The representative of PCC, a German group which intendes to buy the company, specified that the denationalisation of "Oltchim", announced in the Fall of this year, will be consequently made with all their debts and not on the basis of an " untransparent" procedure, which could have been approved by Bruxelles as a possible help from the state. Wojciech Zaremba explained: "Two days ago, we were informed by the European Committee representatives regarding the two petitions submitted by PCC, through which we underlined that the transformation proces of the debts into shares is "untransparent" and can become a helping hand coming from the state. The European Committee sent us a positive answer and announced that they will carefully supervise this proces, if there is place left. As far as I am concern, it seems that AVAS has already given up to this modality of increasing their capital. Regarding the second petition of PCC, addressed to the European Parliament , Adam Lamentowics, PCC Project Development Manager, said that this institution will take a decision regarding the given situation, six months from an official decision of the European Committee. Lamentowics has also added that the decision of the European Members of Parliament will play a perfunctorily role in comparison with the role of the Executive Committee from Bruxelles. In his turn, the general manager of "Oltchim", Constantin Roibu, recently declared in an interview for "Bursa" newspaper, that his company, together with AVAS, have already presented to the European Committee, the problem of the conversion, since the beginning of 2007. " We are not able to express our point of view as long as the problem is analized at the European Committee and, in any case, we will subdue to the decision of the Committee, no matter which will bes its decision", Roibu said. AVAS representatives declared that, at present, they did not receive any address coming from the European Committee regarding the conversion of the debts in shares.

Zaremba: " Arpechim Stopped the Raw Material Delivery"

Two weeks ago, the main raw material provider of the Valcean company " Arpechim Pitesti" stopped the deliveries to Oltchim because of some damages at the old installations, Wojciech Zaremba announced during a press conference that took place yesterday. According to PCC, the Valcean company was forced to reduced its production, which is " a very dangerous thing". Wojciech Zaremba considered that the repairs from "Arpechim" will last a month and declared himself amazed by the fact that Oltchim did not have a plan "B", in order to avert such a crisis. In his turn, Constantin Roibu declared :"It is true that a technical incident took place in the pyrolysis from Arpechim and this led to the cessation of its activity until they fix the problem. As it is already known, Arpechim is the our main raw material provider and this interruption could lead to the complete interruption of Oltchim Company. The prompt intervention of Petrom solved this problem for Oltchim by providing them from other refineries the necessary raw materials. This thing helped Oltchim to continue its activity, even if it was for half of its capacity, until solving the problem, anticipated for the 7th- 8th of October 2008. In this very moment, we cannot estimate which will be the consequences on the budget and the spendings of Olchim in 2008. Both Oltchim and Petrom are making approaches in order to find as soon as possible solutions and to avoid such situations in the future." "On Friday, we will have a management meeting in order to take a decision in this case and we have already suggested to these two companies of the PCC group to deliver the raw material until we solve the problem", Zaremba said. After they searched for information about the prices from Arpechim, one year ago, and negociated with Petrom -OMV the acquisition of the petrochemistry division of the company from Pitesti, the PCC representatives repeated the importance of Arpechim Pitesti for the company, to which it is connected through a pipes network . Zaremba underlined that Oltchim would make the best business if they bought the petrochemistry part of Arpechim, especially in the conditions in which a strong investor from Azerbaidjan would join the business. According to PCC, Arpechim delivers cca. 40% of the production of the company from Valcea.

PCC:" Oltchim Mbo Promised that It Will Change Its name"

Wojciech Zaremba declared that he has nothing against " Oltchim MBO " intention to participate at the denationalisation of the company, but he mentioned that he requested them to change their name. " I do not agree them to use the name "Oltchim", which is a brand of 40 years, registered by Oltchim S.A", Zaremba said, and he added that only the Oltchim brand would value 20% of the value of the society. Moreover, Zaremba said that the name Oltchim MBO, near Oltchim S.A can create confusion in their relation with the financial institutions. Oltchim MBO representatives promissed that they would change their name; it is not right what they had done", Zaremba declared.

Oltchim Has Losses

According to a PCC report, last year, the company from Valcea recorded losses of 25,56 million Euro. The same report shows that the financial situation of Oltchim gradually got worse in the last year, 2007 being actually the first year when losses were recorded. The document shows that the number of employees lowered from 6048 (in 2004) to 4836, in 2007, whilst the sellings increased from 346,4 million Euro in 2004, at 484,70 million Euro in 2007.

Five Microhydro-electric Station in Romania.

PCC intends to build five microhydro-electric stations in Romania, Wojciech Zaremba announced, and he specified that their location was not established, yet. The project is part of the German group strategy to join the energetic market from the South-East Europe, PCC following to build 19 microhydro-electric stations in the area. "The investment for every microhydro-electric station, which will have a capacity of 1 till 5 megawats, is between 10 and 15 million Euro", Zaremba specified. PCC representatives said also that they intend to develop in our country a railway transport network, which is about to be approved in short time.

Worked Wood Volume Bigger with 19,6% than in 2006

Last year, the volume of wood worked by the certified economic operators in the timber station was with 19,6% bigger than in 2006. The distribution of the volume of wood worked on development sections indicates a bigger attention given to the North -East area ( 30,6% of the total), followed by the Center area (19,7%) and with a smaller proportion the following areas: North-West (12,5%), West (11,2%), the South of Muntenia (10,0%), South-East( 7,8%), the South-West of Oltenia(7,8%) and Bucharest- Ilfov( 0,4%). The city with the biggest weight of the winning of timber was in Suceava (15,2%), followed by Neamt (7,2%), Mures (5,6%) and Bacau (5,0%), and the smallest weight, of less than 0,5% in : Ilfov, Galati, Constanta amd Teleorman. The first destination of the exploited round wood was for the timber sections, with a proportion of 60,4%, with 2,8 percentage points more than in 2006.