Romania has lost to Bulgaria the nearly 120 million-euro investments French Montupet, a maker of aluminium components for the automotive industry was planning for the construction of a factory.
This is the second foreign investment Romania has missed in less than two months. German truck maker MAN dropped a nearly 40 million-euro investment in a new factory in April, settling for Poland instead.
Bulgarian news agency Novinite announced Montupet would build an automotive components factory in Ruse to produce for Ford, Audi, Peugeot, Renault, with the output set to be exported to Romania inclusive.
The Bulgarian government at the end of last week endorsed the investment plan for the new factory, which entails construction of a new department to produce aluminium parts, one of Montupeta??s biggest divisions in Europe. The factory will be located in the northwest part of the Ruse industrial park and will take up 140,000 sqm.
a??We lost the investment,a?? administration sources told Ziarul Financiar. They added that what weighed the most in Montupeta??s decision was the land. a??They got the land for free there,a?? the quoted sources added.
This could explain the fact that the investment French company will make in Bulgaria will total 80 million euros, compared with 120 million as announced when negotiations with the Romanian authorities started. The Romanian Agency for Foreign Investments (ARIS), which assisted Montupet in this project, confirms the French companya??s interest in Bulgaria, but would not announce the failure to attract this investment.
a??As a result of the announcement on the website of the Bulgarian news agency, ARIS contacted Montupeta??s officials - vice-president Didier Crozet, who denied the decision was actually made. The data provided by the same officials show that the Bulgarian government positively answered all the demands by Montupet in a very short time, for which reason the decision of the board to choose Bulgaria as destination is being passed as very likely,a?? the Agency officials say. They added a final decision on the location of the investment was to be made this week.
Their Bulgarian counterparts, however, do not hesitate to announce that the French companya??s investment is the biggest achievement of the Invest Bulgaria Agency for Investments due to the impact it will have on the economy.
a??This is the biggest project in the automobile industry in Bulgaria ever, it is also the biggest French investment in the country, because it will certainly spur a chain reaction in the entire automobile industry,a?? agency chairman Pavel Ezekiev was quoted as saying by Novinite.
The Cluj County Council had decided to allocate a 20 ha plot of land for this investment, inside the new industrial park Tetarom 2, with the new factory set to take up 12 ha.
Things got stuck here, as the price of the land was the main stumbling block. Montupet offered 2 euros per sqm to the local authorities, which some of the local councillors denied.
Council chairman Marius Nicoara instructed the councillors to take it, warning them Cluj might lose the investment since Montupet had a better offer in Bulgaria.
They did not, so that the negotiations stopped and Montupet chose Bulgaria. miruna.lebedencu@zf.ro
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