Bucharest City Mayor Gabriela Firea expects “in a decent time” ELCEN to set the amount that the municipality should pay for the acquisition of the company, and then the General Council will decide whether the ELCEN takeover from the Ministry of Energy is efficient.

Firea says the municipality has alternative solutions if ELCEN does not want to enter under the administration of the City Hall by merging with RADET. “We can do without them, they cannot do without us, they go bankrupt, and go home,” Firea said. “I am somehow puzzled and surprised that it takes so long to evaluate the ELCEN’s stocks value because we have said we want to buy, precisely in order to have the heat system completed – production, transport and distribution”, Gabriela Firea said on Thursday in the meeting of the General Council of Bucharest (CGMB).

“It was not accepted that this acquisition would take place at nominal value, as it was normal, because all across the country the CETs were given to the mayoralties free of charge, and only for us, here in Bucharest, it was enforced an evaluation value, with the contribution, we must admit, from the Ministry of Justice, which we have nothing to thank for, from this point of view. But even so, it is imperative for us to know what this sum is, because after we analyze it here in the council, we might find it more efficient not to take over ELCEN”, Firea said.

Mayor of Bucharest added that the municipality can handle without ELCEN, but ELCEN cannot resist without the municipality.

“Let them, as some gentlemen from ELCEN want, to keep their high salaries in a dying economic unit and caring only of their own interest. I say it, once again, if ELCEN does not want to apply what is in the government program, we have solutions, we have backup, they do not. We can handle it without them, without us, they go bankrupt, they go home. They will only enjoy a few more months of big salaries from a dying organization, and then leave home,”, Firea said.

ELCEN – controlled by the Ministry of Energy – produces and distributes heat and power, being the largest producer of thermal energy in Romania, providing almost 40% of the country’s production and 90% of the thermal energy production in Bucharest. RADET provides distribution for 72 percent of the capital’s heating demand, mostly to households (90%).

ELCEN and RADET went into insolvency in 2016, a decision taken by the authorities to resolve the issue of historical debts between the two, but also to third parties.

In January, General Counselors agreed to a set of consecutive actions to be included by the Special Administrator in the RADET reorganization plan, including transformation of the company into joint stock company, ELCEN absorption and paying debts to as many of the debtors by the new company. This would receive the delegation contract for the heat supply, distribution and supply service, and the judiciary administrator of RADET, RomInsolv SPRL, would close the judicial reorganization procedure within six months from the merger by concluding agreements with all creditors.