Posta Romana looking for a strategic partner

The new ICT Minister of Romania, Razvan Mustea-Serban, confirmed on February 10 that one of his priorities was the partial privatization of the Post. A minority partner (20%) will be identified by June 2012. According to press reports, the Posts of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden have expressed an interest in partnering with Posta Romana.  The Post is currently held by the State (75%) and Proprietaria Fundul, a joint stock company established by the State in 2005 (25%).

The Romanian Post (CNPR) ended  2011 with losses of only 5.5 M USD (vs 37 M USD in 2010) on a turnover of about 430 M USD . This is partly the result of restructuration measures including the closing of 1,300 post offices (from 7,100 to 5,835), a reorganization of the IT systems and transportation infrastructure, and voluntary redundancies.  Another 135 post offices will be closed and 600 jobs eliminated in Q1 2012 (With 35,000 employees, the Post is Romania’s largest employer).

The privatization and restructuration measures have been agreed by Romania  as part of the Stand-By Arrangement signed with the IMF (providing up to around USD 4.5 billion of financial assistance) . The program involves reform “accelerated reforms” aimed at making state-owned enterprises more efficient.  Apart from the Post, the National Coal Company is being liquidated, and several thousand  positions are being cut at the National Railways.

(Information of the IMF’s activities in Romania : http://www.imf.org/external/country/ROU/index.htm)