Ford Motor Co has offered to pay 57 million euros ($78 million) for the Romanian government's majority stake in troubled carmaker Automobile Craiova SA, officials said on Friday.
The centrist government bought back the Craiova-based carmaker from its bankrupt owner, Daewoo Motor, in late 2006 for $51 million and paid another $10 million for debts stemming from past loans secured by the Korean company.
In July, Ford submitted the only bid in a tender for a 72.4 percent stake in a sale which the Romanian government had said it hoped to wrap up by Sept 1.
“The offer of Ford Motor Company for a 72.4 percent stake is 4.1556 euros per share or 57 million euros overall,” Sebastian Vladescu, head of Romania's privatization agency AVAS, told reporters after opening an improved financial offer by Ford.
Vladescu, who said Ford's initial offer for the plant was worth 55 million euros, expects the deal to be signed next week. “We still have a lot of work to do, it will be a long and complicated weekend.”
Government sources, quoted by local media, have said an agreement on the sale might be signed in Frankfurt on September 12 during the international motor show.
The U.S. carmaker has said it plans to invest 675 million euros in the Craiova-based plant which produced 24,000 Daewoo vehicles in 2006.
It intends to raise employment to around 7,000 from 3,900 at present, and plans to reach output of 300,000 units a year. Media have speculated that Ford would produce the Fiesta model.
Many auto-part makers have set up in the new European Union member country, attracted by the rising output of Renault's (RENA.PA) Dacia plant, cheap labor and favorable tax rates.
Automobile Craiova shares closed 8.36 percent up at 35 lei on Friday.
