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Former Minister of Economy’s family – in partnership with the German Giant RAG
German Group RAG bought from E.ON stocks to another economic giant, whereas E.ON bought Electrica Moldova from the Ministry lead by Dan Ioan Popescu


One of the biggest transactions of the last years, at European level, was stopped by Cebotex SRL - one of the companies Dan Ioan Popescu had business interests in. Meanwhile, Dan Ioan Popescu is no longer Minister of Economy or a key member of the DSP, and Cebotex changed its name into Bozzetto România SRL.
The EU Competition Authority was the one to who solved the case of Popescu family’s Italian Partners and showed that Bozzetto Spa is controlled by the German powerful Mining Group « RAG » AG.
In 2002, the Competition Authority requested RAG Group to withdraw from « Bozzetto » and sell its participation in Romania, that is in the company administered by Minister Popescu’s wife. Otherwise, the European Competition Authority could not allow for RAG Group to take over the third most successful German chemical products manufacturer – giant DEGUSSA.
RAG AG is a multinational company based in Essen, acting in the mining sector, chemical industry and real estate business.
Taking into consideration the specific activity of the group, the association could have put Dan Ioan Popescu in a conflict of interests position, as both the mining sector and the chemical industry were, at that time, in the portfolio of the Ministry of Economy.

The taking over of DEGUSSA would have represented an important increase of RAG income, from 15 to 20 billion euro, and also an increase in the number of employees, from 82,000 to 100,000. RAG was going to acquire the majority stake, representing at least 50.1% in DEGUSSA capital, in a step by step transaction. The first step was that RAG buys by public offer some of DEGUSSA stocks that E.ON was selling on the stock exchange and then to acquire more stocks through a direct transaction between the two parts, so that RAG can reach majority. On the other hand, E.ON had to sell its DEGUSSA stocks (65% of the registered capital) in maximum 5 years. This was imposed to E.ON after gaining the sole control over the American public services company Powergen" plc, as result of an agreement with "Securities and Exchange Commission" (SEC), the authority that supervises the American stock exchange.
E.ON, RAG and DEGUSSA have to notify the competition authorities in USA, EU, Canada and Romania on these transactions. Only that the EU competition authority authorized the transaction provided that RAG AG sells the production facilities for naphthalene- sulphonic acids, which were in the property of "Bozzetto" Spa, an Italian subsidiary of RAG. In other words, the powerful German group had to withdraw from minister Popescu’s business.

In Aprili 2004, when EON and RAG were still negociating the price for, The Ministry of Economy, lead by Dan Ioan Popescu, announced the selling of Electrica Moldova and Electrica Oltenia. Several companies show their interest in the first company, but after the submission of final offers, the winner is E.ON, meanwhile for Electrica Oltenia – the Czech company CEZ (both investors competed for the two distribution companies). The winners were decided in Decembee 2004, shortly before minister Dan Ioan Popescu’s mandate expired, leaving to his successor, Codruţ Şeres, the satisfaction for signing the contracts. Meanwhile, Dan Ioan Popescu migrates towards the Conservative Party, becoming Minister Codruţ Şeres’ “political boss”.
E.ON and RAG Group announced in 2005 that they have reached, after several years of negociations, an agreement on DEGUSSA. Thus, RAG Group, Popescu family’s business partner, announced its intention to pay, by July 2006, about 2,8 billion euro for 43% of « Degussa ». E.On had already gained control over Electrica Moldova, meanwhile some of Popescu’s fortune was seized, as the prosecutors considered the income during his mandate as minister couldn’t account for it.