February 9 (SeeNews) - Romania's government said on Friday it has decided to capitalise state-controlled postal service operator Posta Romana with 170 million lei ($45 million/ 37 million euro).
"We are talking about a unique moment in the history of the company," Posta Romana said in a press release.
The company will use the funds to pay overdue debts to the state budget.
"This is indeed a double investment in Posta Romana – a capital investment through which our debts to ANAF [national tax agency] are covered and a trust investment in the post’s capacity to become a strong and profitable company again," Posta Romana general manager Elena Petrascu said.
In the following period, Posta Romana will call the general meeting of shareholders, in accordance with the legal provisions, for the finalization of the capitalization process.
In January, Telekom Romania said it will end its collaboration for the invoice payment service with Posta Romana starting February, as a result of Romanian Post's non-observance of the contractual obligations,
Also in January, Posta Romana said it is taking out a 30 million lei loan from local EximBank to finance current operations. The loan is being extended for a period of 24 months.
The Romanian state owns 75% of Posta Romana, with the remainder is owned by local property restitution fund Fondul Proprietatea.
The company has the largest distribution network at national level, with more than 80% of all postal sub-units currently operating in Romania. Over 19 million people benefit from its services and more than 7.5 million addresses are covered by their own postal network.
In September 2015, the government failed to sell Posta Romana as the Belgian postal services operator bpost, which was the only investor that had shown interest in the privatisation process, did not submit a binding bid for a 51% stake in the company by the specified deadline.
(1 euro=4.6561 lei)
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