Romania's APM offers to buy Moldova's Giurgiulesti port for $62 mln, but deal challenged - report
CHISINAU. Sept 18 (Interfax) - Romania's Administratia Porturilor Maritime S.A. Constanta (APM), which is 80% government owned, has made a binding offer to buy Moldova's Giurgiulesti International Free Port (GIFP) from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for $62 million, but the deal might be derailed by an APM minority shareholder, Romanian publication profit.ro reported.
Fondul Proprietatea (FP), which owns a 20% stake in APM, has filed a lawsuit in a Romanian to overturn the decision made at APM's annual general meeting of shareholders on June 19 to approve the binding offer to acquire the operator of the Giurgiulesti port, the report said. The lawsuit is being reviewed but a date for the first hearing has not been set yet.
FP is asking the court to rule that the price of $62 million is based on an optimistic scenario presented by the management of ICS Danube Logistics, the EBRD-owned operator of the port, without an opinion from PwC on the feasibility of the business plan and the assumptions on which it was prepared by the seller, the report said. APM hired PwC as an advisor on the deal.
FP questions the feasibility of the port's plans to increase cargo handling by 80% and profit by 60% by 2030, and generally believes the investments declared in the offer to be an overvaluation.
However, the Romanian authorities have confirmed their intention to acquire the Moldovan port. The Romanian government said on Thursday that it is continuing talks with the EBRD on the purchase of the GIFP, which is in the process of an international tender announced by the bank.
The EBRD, which put GIFP up for sale in April, said at the end of June that it had received several binding offers to acquire Moldova's main commercial sea and river port. In mid-July, the Moldovan authorities approved the sale of the port to APM, noting that the company intends to invest 24 million euros in the port's development.
The Romanian government discussed a memorandum on the purchase of GIFP from the EBRD at the end of last year. Bulgaria's MBF Port Burgas also showed interest in buying the port.
GIFP, which is located 133.8 km from the Black Sea on the left bank of the Prut and Danube rivers in the town of Giurgiulesti on the borders with Romania and Ukraine, is Moldova's only port with access to the Black Sea. The port was created in 2006 thanks to Ukraine's transfer of 430 meters of Danube and Prut shoreline to Moldova.
The port has an oil terminal with storage capacity for 63,000 tonnes, two grain terminals, a terminal for other cargo and a business park. The port handles more than 70% of Moldovan imports and exports shipped by water transport.
