Romanian President Traian Basescu recently said that Romania would be interested in German Deutsche Bahn’s participation in the privatization of local railway freight company CFR Marfa.

During a visit to Germany, Basescu told German journalists that the Romanian state-held economy should be privatized, as it is not competitive.

“The state economy that has not yet been privatized, and this represents some 45 percent of the Romanian economy, is not yet at a sufficient level of competitiveness,” said Traian Basescu, reports local news agency Mediafax.

“We will privatize state-owned companies because we find this to be the key to increase the competitiveness of the public sector,” the President added.

In this context, Traian Basescu said that the Romania authorities would be interested in Deutsche Bahn’s participation in the privatization of Romania’s CFR Marfa.

“We would be very interested if, for example, Deutsche Bahn looked to the bid which is organized for the privatization of Romania’s largest railway freight company, namely CFR Marfa,” said Basescu, quoted by Mediafax.

Deutsche Bahn was founded in 1994 and is currently one of the world’s leading passenger and logistics companies, operating in 130 countries.

Romania tried to privatize CFR Marfa in 2013, but the process failed. GFR was declared the winner of CFR Marfa’s privatization in June last year, but the transaction couldn’t be completed by the October 14 deadline.

According to GFR owner Gruia Sandu, some of the lenders of CFR Marfa did not agree to change the company’s shareholder structure and the Competition Council didn’t have enough time to green light the takeover. Gruia Sandu is currently under arrest in an alleged corruption case.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com