Răzvan Popescu, Romgaz: "We want BVB to be a partner for the bonds we will issue"

Romgaz will turn, first of all, to the capital market in our country, for the international bonds it wants to launch in order to finance the Neptun Deep project, Răzvan Popescu, the general director of the company, said yesterday, on the occasion of the event that marked ten years since the listing of the gas producer on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).

Răzvan Popescu said: "It is a time to adapt the business model, a time when we have CAPEX (capital expenditure) to finance and we have to go to international markets. With this capital increase, we will have to become a sustainability engine, and the business model will evolve. We are evolving, learning and we want the stock market to be a partner for the bonds we are going to issue".

The director of Romgaz added: "We thought about a financing mix. It is important to access the Romanian market, because after all Romgaz is a Romanian company, Romanian investors know the company very well, pension funds know the company, and there are more and more institutional investors in the shareholding. It is clear that we will have to access the Romanian market first. There is liquidity in the market. The size we are thinking about at the moment is quite high and we do not know exactly if the Romanian market will be able to absorb the entire size and for this reason we want the bonds to be international".

In the summer of this year, OMV Petrom and Romgaz took the final investment decision in the Neptun Deep project. The companies will invest up to four billion euros for the development phase of the project, between 2024 and 2026, which will generate, starting in 2027, approximately 100 million cubic meters of natural gas. The expected production from this exploitation project is equivalent to a value 30 times higher than the current annual natural gas demand of 4.3 million households, according to the company.

Romgaz Black Sea Limited owns 50% of the stake in the XIX Neptun perimeter, the deep water area (Neptun Deep), and the other 50% stake is held by OMV Petrom, which is also the operator of the Neptun Deep project.