The top 45 companies controlled by the Romanian state last yearregistered 10bn-euro turnover, but their over 200,000 employees,though earning twice as much as people working in the privatesector, brought the state a 70m-euro loss. The averageprofitability of companies in Romania revolves around 10% ofturnover, and had state-owned firms been competently managed, theywould have fetched 1bn-euro revenues to the state budget per annum,namely 0.8% in GDP. The Government has recently raised the VAT asit needed a further 1bn-euro in revenues for 2010. The total lossesof state-owned companies would have been much deeper but forexceptional cases such as that of Electrica, which generated grossincome worth 148m euros last year in the wake of a deal with CEZ.In the absence of this profit, overall losses would have topped200m euros. In the order of losses, the top 10 state-ownedcompanies brought losses of around 700m euros, with CompaniaNaţională a Huilei leading, with over 144m euros. Moreover, thesame 10 companies, which are the biggest black holes in the state'sportfolio, at the level of 2008 had total debts of above 16bneuros. What is the solution for these firms in the context whereRomania borrowed billions of euros to pay pensions and salarieswhile the most valuable assets in the state's portfolio arepractically unused? Doru Lionăchescu, managing partner with CapitalPartners investment house, has a clear-cut opinion on this issue."We cannot afford letting them lose so much. Business lines need tobe closed down, aberrant routes such as in the case of CFR Călătorineed to be rethought, personnel needs to be cut, suppliers throughwhich money is siphoned need to be identified. (…)".
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