Valer Blidar signs contracts worth over 400m euros with state in 2 years

Valer Blidar, one of the leading businesspeople in the transportation sector, who set up Banca Feroviara bank, has sealed contracts worth over 400 million euros with CFR Calatori (CFR Passenger Transport) for the delivery of carriages. Recently state-held CFR Calatori announced it would conclude a basic agreement with Astra Vagoane Calatori, the company controlled by Blidar, to acquire 400 new InterRegio carriages, worth 1 billion euros (238 million euros). This basic agreement follows another contract, with an almost similar value, sealed in 2008, for the delivery of 200 air-conditioned carriages for internal and international transport, worth over 700 million RON (199 million euros). "We have sealed other basic agreements with CFR Calatori for the delivery of several carriages, but they did not acquire the maximum number provided for in the agreement. It all depends on the budget of the state-held company," said industrialist Valer Blidar, who entered the business world after the 1989 revolution, when he started to manufacture carriage subassemblies.