Renault Resumes Works At Its Romanian Car Testing Unit In Titu

France's Renault will resume in a few days the construction works at its Renault Technologie Roumanie (RTR) unit in the southern Romanian town of Titu, as the financing contracts are seen inked by September, RTR manager Philippe Prevel told MEDIAFAX on Tuesday.

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By September, the company will seal all the documents necessary to obtain financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank to complete the project in Titu, Prevel said.

"We put the works on hold in December (2008- e.n.) because of the crisis, and, meanwhile, we had to find new financing sources. We are very close to obtain it, and Renault’s management decided to resume works at the project," Prevel said.

In May, EBRD approved an investment of EUR44 million in raising the share capital of RTR. Thus, the lender will own a 49% stake in Renault’s car testing unit.

Meanwhile, RTR will contract a EUR83 million loan from EIB, guaranteed by the Romanian state.

Freezing the works at RTR for more than seven months makes the first phase of the project to be completed in the second semester of 2010, Prevel said, compared with the second half of this year, as initially estimated. The second stage will be completed a year later.

Asked if Renault has received the EUR28 million state aid for the center in Titu, Prevel said the money "will be recovered" from the Romanian authorities during the investment period.

The construction of the car testing unit from Titu was estimated to cost EUR450 million.

RTR currently employs 2,300 people, out of which 2,200 are engineers.

The RTR center is Renault’s second such unit as importance, after the engineering center in France. The unit in Romania mainly deals with projects covering the Logan car brand.

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