Around 400 employees of the state-owned Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea chemicals producer have started to protest in front of the factory on Tuesday, asking minority shareholder PCC SE to withdraw from the company's shareholding structure. The employees complained about the fact that the minority shareholder has negatively influenced the company's image, by lacking loyalty to the company's management. PCC SE has always criticized Oltchim's management, lead by Constantin Roibu, saying he has not taken all the measures to restructure the company and constantly asking for his replacement.

Commentators have said that Roibu was behind the employee protest against the minority shareholder. The company's manager has recently said he would resign from the helm of Oltchim, as asked by PCC, if the company comes up with realistic solutions to restructure the company and guarantee for it with the shares PCC holds in Oltchim and in PCC Rokita. Roibu has also asked PCC to show the financial resources and demonstrate it has the capacity to support the production activity for Oltchim.

Romania's Government plans to sell the stake it still owns in Oltchim by the end of this year while identifying solutions to cover Oltchim's debt.

The main shareholder in Oltchim is the Romanian state, with 54.8 percent of the shares, while the German company PCC SE and investment fund Carlson Ventures International, together own 31.3 percent of Romanian majority state-owned company Oltchim. The two minority shareholders have announced their plans to work together to take over the state-owned company, once put for privatization.

Romanian law firm Musat & Asociatii has recently been selected by the Romanian Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business to provide legal advice to the Office for State Ownership and Privatisation in Industry (OPSPI) in the privatization of the Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea plant.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)