Austrian constructions company Strabag is launching a public takeover bid today for the almost 60% in stock of Grandemar Cluj-Napoca it does not own yet.
Grandemar specialises in the extraction of rock needed in constructions. The value of the bid stands at 8.2 million RON (2.2 million euros) and is going to be launched, in line with a report released on RASDAQ Electronic Stock Exchange, at 0.5 RON/share, by a Hungarian branch of the Austrians. The price matches the one seen in the last transactions with the company''s stock.
The main Grandemar stockholder is Bloem International of the Netherlands, which owns a 49.9% stake. Bloem group is a business belonging to a Dutch family, also including companies in the field of machinery and equipment and transportation.
Grandemar is among the companies that were hardest hit by the slower pace of Transylvania motorway works. The company had signed an agreement with the general contractor of the highway, US Bechtel company, stipulating the use of the Morlaca quarry of Cluj county as the main supplier of quarry aggregates for the motorway. All drilling-processing operations are supposed to take place under Grandermar''s control and responsibility, while the Americans are supposed to deliver all the installations and machinery needed to boost the production capacity.
The slower progress of works has, however, caused losses that Grandemar officials in mid-year estimated to amount to 1.75 million euros.
Motorway construction is, as a matter of fact, among the operations carried by Strabag. The company last year signed a contract with the Romanian authorities for establishing a public-private partnership for the construction of Bucharest-Ploiesti highway as a first section of the Bucharest-Brasov motorway.
However, the Ministry of Transportation, Constructions and Tourism later announced it had halted all talks held for the creation of public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects.
Strabag was to sign the contract for the highway section this spring, valued at 477.2 million euros. The representatives of the Austrian company said they would make use of "all legal means" to push the Romanian authorities to abide by the partnership contract signed in 2004. vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro
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