The story of the failed privatization of Cupru Min is far from over. In fact, it is actually beginning to look more like the famous series "X Files".
The Romanian government and the Canadians of Roman Copper, the winners of the auction, seem to be living in parallel worlds. While the Ministry of the Economy is getting ready to repeat the call for bids, claiming that the investor did not agree to the contractual conditions, Roman Copper once again announced that it had accepted the conditions imposed by the Romanian party.
On Friday, the Canadians announced that they have reached a definitive verbal agreement concerning the terms of the final privatization contract, but during the night, the Minister of the Economy announced that the representatives of Roman Copper did not adhere to the required conditions, which concerned the full payment of the contract, the fulfilling of the environmental obligations and the clauses concerning the transparency of this contract.
Yesterday morning, Roman Copper sent a new press release in which it showed that it was ready to apply all the conditions imposed by the Government to acquire Cupru Min, including the financial obligations which had not been included in the initial documentation of the call for bids. The officials of Roman Copper insist that they have agreed as early as Friday to the terms for acquiring the mining company and that they were confident that the privatization would be concluded, even though the statement made by Minister Bode seems to indicate the opposite.
Claiming that the statement made by Minister Bode in the media created confusion (ed. note: what can be confusing about a refusal?), the Canadians also note that the call for bids for the sale of Cupru Min is "widely acknowledged as the most transparent in the history of Romania's privatization program" and that it was ready to imp
