The Grampet Group, Romania’s leading services and production enterprise in the railway sector, whose company Feroviar purchased the Croatian national rail transport company HZ Cargo, and Grampet Group owner Gruia Stoica are not under an investigation for privatisation corruption and have no tax debts and speculation about this is just part of the political folklore, spokeswoman for Grampet Group Oana Popescu told reporters in Zagreb on Tuesday.
Feroviar won the tender for the purchase of a 75% stake in HZ Cargo and the media recently brought headlines according to which anti-corruption and tax services in Romania have launched an investigation into Gruia Stoica.
Popescu refuted these allegations.
Grampet Group is the largest private rail group in Romania and in South-Eastern Europe. Set up in 1999, Grampet Group includes several companies with activities in all railway sectors, from the transport of goods, rolling stock manufacturing and maintenance to logistics management.
Grampet Group said it would respect conditions from the tender, adding it was ready to retain 1,100 workers, a condition the Croatian government set in the tender.
Grampet Group representatives on Tuesday met HZ Cargo unionists in order to include them in the restructuring process.
On July 25, the Croatian government accepted the bid from the Romanian company Feroviar for the purchase of a 75% stake in the HZ Cargo rail company.
According to the bid, Feroviar would buy HZ Cargo within 30 days of signing the contract, it would pay 30 million euros to repay the principal sum of a loan covered by a state guarantee, 10 million euros would go towards operating capital to cover the liabilities to suppliers and workers' wages, and a further 20 million euros for investments.
