The minister of Economy, Lucian Bode, and the Ambassador of Canada in Bucharest came to the Government HQ after Romanian authorities could not reach an agreement with the Canadian company Roman Copper over the privatisation of Cupru Min.In a statement delivered at the Victoria Palace, government spokesman Dan Suciu said that the Canadian diplomat came for a planned meeting with Andreea Paul, economic counselor to the premier, about several Canadian investments in Romania.According to Suciu, the minister of Economy met PM Ungureanu in order to clarify several things before meeting trade unions Tuesday afternoon.“Any connection between the presence of the Canadian ambassador at the Government HQ and Premier Mihai Razvan Ungureanu is unjustified,” Suciu stated. The Canadian company Roman Copper won the auction for the integral package of shares in Cupru Min, against EUR 200.77 M, 3.5 times more than the starting price of EUR 57.3 M.The deadline for signing the contract was Friday, but the Canadian company failed to pay the guarantee for environment investments, pay the price of the shares within a month from the CC go-ahead, and accept making public the privatisation document, so the accord has not been signed, according to the Romanian side. The minister of Economy, Lucian Bode announced Friday evening, at the end of negotiations, that the Romanian side asked Canadians to create a collateral deposit worth EUR 32.7 M as guarantee for environment investments, and pay the EUR 200.7 M for the shares they purchased, within 30 days from obtaining the approval of the Competition Council and the integrated environment license – both being suspensive conditions in the contract. Officials of Bayfront Capital Partners, which controls the Canadian company, said they reached a “final verbal agreement” with Romanian authorities last Friday over the privatisation of Cupru Min, and now they expect the agreement to be observed. The Canadian company Roman Copper yesterday reiterated its willingness to meet all the conditions set by the government in view of purchasing the mining company, which include the financial obligations that were not mentioned by the initial documents of the auction.Roman Copper added that, in the coming days, it will present other details about its plans concerning Cupru Min and expects to continue the cooperation with Romanian authorities in view of completing the transaction.
