Although it remains unclear whether the threat of a possible withdrawal of minority shareholder Carlson Private Equity (London / UK; www.carlsonfunds.co.uk) from Oltchim (Rîmnicu Vîlcea / Romania; www.oltchim.ro) will be backed by actual deeds, the UK group has expressed “deep concern” over the renewed delay in Oltchim’s privatisation as well as the steady deterioration in the Romanian group’s finances. Carlson owns 14.03% of Oltchim’s shares.

The UK investor’s comments about a possible sale come in the wake of the Romanian government’s plans to put in place a private management in several companies earmarked for privatisation – with Oltchim among them. This would indicate a significant delay in or possibly even the abandonment of the sale of the group’s state-owned shares, Carlson said, adding that Oltchim is currently just drifting, without anyone appearing to be in control. Just a few weeks ago, Carlson had joined forces with the other Oltchim minority shareholder PCC SE (Duisburg / Germany; www.pcc.eu) – see Plasteurope.com of 02.09.2011.

A Plasteurope.com query as to how this would affect PCC, which owns 18.23% of Oltchim, and whether the German fund would consider acquiring Carldon’s shares, remained unanswered.