"Today's decision of the Belgian operator is a premise for a successful privatization, a process led by the Romanian Government in line with its own strategy. It also reflects a consistent, transparent and truthful path of the Privatisation Commission during the past two years, the organization that has worked so far under the direction of MSI. We are pleased to have a bidder who meets all the quality requirements of a shareholder of the national operator of postal services, "said the CEO of the Romanian Post, Mr. Alexandru Petrescu.

bpost's decision that was taken Tuesday will start converting into shares the debts of the Romanian Post to the state, the pre-condition for submitting the non-binding offer. The national postal service will prepare the data room and all the other typical documents of this stage of the privatization process. 

"I embrace the bpost's decision, one of the biggest postal operators with solid business profile in Europe. This is yet another proof of the efficient trade route to which the Romanian Post joined last year, a trend which I am sure will continue in the future. By submitting the offer to purchase a 51% stake of the CNPR's shares, we can say that we successfully completed this first step on the privatization of the Romanian Post. This shows the seriousness of the Romanian Government regarding the privatization of large Romanian companies. It will be a long way to the successful completion of the negotiations, but I assure you that the discussions will be based on transparency, professionalism and concern for all the Post's employees", said the Minister of the Information Society, Mr. Alexandru Cotovelea.

In December 12, 2012, the Romanian Government decided on beginning the procedure of privatization of the Romanian Post with the method of capital raising by means of private capital. This involves the acquisition by a new investor of a stake representing 51% of the share capital of the company, including the resulted one after the conversion into shares of state claims against the company.

The selection of the inverstor in a process accomplished through the auction with a bid envelope combined with the method of auction with call, followed by negotiations on the basis of preliminary non-binding offer. If selected, bpost will be admitted in the ,,due diligence” phase of the process, which requires access to the data room, access to the company's management and operational visits, and also the negotiations over the privatization contract. Once this step in completed, bpost will submit a final offer to purchase the majority holding in the Romanian Post.

Romanian Post is owned by the Romanian state through the Ministry of Information Society (75%) and the Property Fund (25%). The company has the largest nationwide distribution network, meaning over 80% of all postal subunits currently operating in Romania. Over 19 million people benefit from the postal services of the Romanian Post and over 7,5 million addresses are covered by their own postal network.

Source: Posta Romana