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Romanian Aro Buyer Says PM Is Misinformed

Nicolae Ratiu, owner of Landmark Management, which bought last year the country’s sole off-road vehicle manufacturer Aro Campulung, said Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu is misinformed when he says the company is looking into real estate.
Romanian Aro Buyer Says PM Is Misinformed
13 mai 2008, 15:14, English

Ratiu added the platform in Campulung, southern Romania, is destined exclusively to the production of car parts.

"I don’t think the prime minister knows exactly what we plan to do there. What he said is wrong. We plan to build an industrial park for the automotive industry in Campulung,” Ratiu told MEDIAFAX Tuesday.

Attending the opening of a gearbox plant by French carmaker Renault on the Dacia platform in Mioveni, Arges county, Tariceanu asked authorities to establish an industrial park in Campulung, adding Renault’s suppliers are willing to work in the area.

"Unfortunately, after the shutdown of the Aro plant, instead of turning the land in Campulung into an industrial park, the owners are more interested in real estate projects. I don’t know what real estate developing the town needs, but I do know it needs jobs. Therefore, I want local authorities, and I will talk about it with the mayor, to immediately start a project to create an industrial park in the area, as suppliers are willing to work there,” Tariceanu said.

Ratiu contradicted the prime minister’s statements, saying contracts have already been signed with two foreign companies, Noble and Lear, which are to produce car parts on the platform in Campulung. Moreover, a contract is to be signed with Dacia-Renault, which plans to produce car parts there.

"There are also other foreign companies that plan to produce car parts on the Aro platform and we are negotiating with another five-six companies, apart from the three I have mentioned,” Ratiu said.

Ratiu added that starting last summer, spaces on the Aro platform are being made ready for the production of car parts and he has no real estate inters in the area.

"What real estate is there to develop in Campulung, which has 20,000 inhabitants, of which 5,000 are unemployed?" Ratiu said.

Bucharest-based Landmark Management, which bought Aro last year, sold end 2007 the sports base and the 16,470 square-meter land to Germany’s Kaufland for the opening of a hypermarket. The company’s core activity is real estate.