It seems that the summer of 2010 brought extremely propitious circumstances for initiating the privatisation of European freight transport operators. Potential privatisations of the Greek operator, OSE, the Polish operator, PKP Cargo, and that of the Romanian operator, CFR Marfă, have been recently announced in different economic and political environments. Pressures have been launched for the privatisation of the Austrian operator, Rail Cargo, as well. Movements promise to be interesting, especially in what concerns the extension of the railway market liberalisation policy, but also in finding the right solutions for getting public funds out of this market as well.
What the result of these operations would be and what will really happen in the months and years to come, we shall wait and see. For now, it seems that only Polish authorities are seeking a real and complete privatisation since public information indicates that the Polish state is determined not to accept for privatisation any state capital company.
The ambivalent attitude of national authorities with regard to the potential privatisation of operators could be noticed during the years when railway directives were transposed into reality. The radical step Great Britain took (the full privatisation of operators resulted from the restructuring process) has not found echo on the continent; the privatisation process of the Hungarian operator MAV Cargo has actually involved the shift from one country’s management to another, Austrian, through Rail Cargo; DB Cargo’s privatisation is announced/postponed/reassessed/annulled based on political misunderstandings; until currently, CFR Marfă’s privatisation has followed the same path of sins and the current argumentation of a greater value resides precisely in non-commercial grounds by ignoring the private operators’ capacity of carrying out contracts with the military or energy sectors.
This dual relationship between etatism and capitalism also resides in the reference of European states to the role played by infrastructure (see Railway Pro, July 2010). The harmful relationship based on the underfinancing of some sectors of little interest to the state, but of great importance in carrying on business – railway or non-railway. This venomous relationship will also reside in the privatisation process since political men will keep trying to attract political gains on the short term and will promote the same anti-capitalist anti-competition message on the railway market. In the end, these messages will influence the operators’ selling value.
This way, the decision of investor Warren Buffett to buy the American operator BNSF for USD 44 Billion can be carried out. The worth of its European sisters represent a small fraction of this amount, proving once again the sad difference between the European and the American approach of the rail transport market.
by Ștefan Roșeanu
Share on:
