Three bidders signed up in the race to take over Romanian state – owned freight railways operator CFR Marfa. One of the bidders is a Romanian company, Grup Feroviar Roman, controlled by Gruia Stoica, while another Romanian company has created a consortium with an Austrian group. The American company OmniTRAX and the association between Transferoviar Grup (TFG) and Donau-Finanz GmbH & Co KG Austria are the other two bidders.

The deadline for submitting offers had been pushed back to May 8, from the previous April 22, and the deadline for opening the offers and naming a winner is June 20.

OmniTRAX, registered in Denver, Colorado, is one of the most important rail companies in North America. Transferoviar Group is a Romanian company controlled by businessman Calin Mitica, while Donau-Finanz GmbH & Co KG Austria is an investment fund with over EUR 2 billion in assets. Donau-Finanz is also a last stage qualified bidder for the Bulgarian railway company BDZ. GFR is the second largest railway freight operator in Romania, after the state – owned CFR Marfa. In 2011, the company had a turnover of some EUR 180 million. GFR too was shortlisted in the race for BDZ Cargo in Bulgaria.

Transport Minister Relu Fenechiu recently said that even after selling 51 percent in CFR Marfa, the country would still be able to prevent the sale of the company's assets as scrap metal, and the restrictions in the task book will prevent intermediaries from signing up in the privatization race. The procedure will have three stages, pre-qualification, negotiation based on preliminary offers and the bid with closed offers.

A winner should be announced mid-June, and this privatization is among the pledges Romania has made to its main financier the IMF.

editor@romania-insider.com