January 18 (SeeNews) - Romanian home appliances manufacturer Arctic, a unit of Turkey's Arcelik, said on Monday it is considering to build a 105 million euro ($114 million) washing machine and dishwasher factory if it receives 37.5 million euro state aid for the project.
The investment will be financed with profits amounting to 70 million euro made before 2014 in Romania, Arctic said in a document posted on its website.
Arctic expects that the finance ministry, through the national state aid scheme approved in 2014, will come up with the rest of the money needed for the factory.
Arctic said it will drop the project if it does not receive financial support from the state.
The planned factory will be located in Gaesti, in southern Romania, where Arctic already operates a refrigerator factory.
Arctic Gaesti was established in 1970 and in 2002 it was acquired by Turkish home appliance products manufacturer Arcelik which said it has invested a total of 108 million euro until today in the factory.
The Gaesti factory manufactures three main brands: Arctic for the internal market and Beko and Grundig mainly for the external market.
Following a 28 million euro investment in a new production line in 2013, the refrigerator factory became the second largest in Europe after another one again owned by Arcelik, in the Turkish city of Eskisehir.
Arctic posted 29.7 million euro profit in 2014, up 13% from previous year, on 334 million euro turnover.
($=0.9165 euro)