Mumbai, Oct. 23: After Corus group Plc and Daewoo Electronics, Tractorul Brasov SA of Romania is likely to be next in corporate India’s bag of overseas buyouts.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), which was stymied in its bid for the state-owned tractor manufacturer, may bag the assets of Tractorul now that the roadblocks are slowly being removed.

Earlier this year, M&M had bid for Tractorul, Romania’s largest tractor manufacturer, in line with its plans of being one of the top five players in farm equipment. Although the Romanian tractor market is not big, M&M was interested in Tractorul as it could give the company a strong entry point for both East and West Europe. Romania is slated to the join the European Union next year.

However, M&M’s plans hit a roadblock after it urged the Romanian government to write off Tractorul’s past liability of 180 million euros. However, the Romanian government could not secure clearance for this move from the Competition Council of the European Union. M&M then said that if the debt could not be written off, it should be suspended following which the government of Romania approached M&M again with a proposal that would not include this debt.

It is now understood that while the hiccup pertaining to this liability will be settled soon, an asset sale should occur by the end of this calendar year or early next year. The buzz is that M&M may have to pay a high price than that was envisaged initially even as the new offer does not contain the contentious liability.