Even before the sales process for the government-owned stake of petrochemicals group Oltchim (Râmnicu Vâlcea / Romania; www.oltchim.ro) officially began – see Plasteurope.com of 14.11.2011 – Romanian Economics Minister Ion Ariton was holding talks with a Russian delegation. According to a report from Bucharest, the managers of utilities company Tise (Moscow / Russia; www.tisegroup.com) "are interested in a takeover and in continuing the business". Ariton pointed to the invitation to tender which was about to be opened, saying that Tise could participate. The government wants to complete the sale of the 54.8% share package by the end of April 2012.

Tise was founded in 2003 by several Russian companies, including Tehnopromexport, Zarubejneft and Zarubejneftegaz. At least the latter is a wholly owned subsidiary of oil and gas giant Gazprom.

In the meantime, General Director Constantin Roibu has once again decreed technical unemployment due to a lack of working capital and a shortage of raw materials. As a result, 1,000 employees will stay at home from 15-30 November – with 80% remuneration.

For Q3 2011, the company reported sales of EUR 75m – down 7% compared with the previous year. The operating loss of around EUR 15m was considerably higher than in the same period of the previous year (EUR 500,000) and also higher than in Q2 2011 (EUR 5.5m). The net loss in Q3 amounted to EUR 24m compared with a loss of EUR 14m in the previous quarter. In Q3 2010, the figures were only just in the red.

Over the first nine months, although Oltchim managed to lift sales by 38% to a good EUR 296m, the net loss of EUR 41m is comparable with the figure for the same period last year.