Romgaz "Fuels' BSE

The Shareholder Assembly of The National Natural Gas Company - Romgaz have recently authorized the commencement of procedures related to the sale of five percent in the company through the capital market. The announcement of the company's listing on The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) will be made this week, according to sources from inside Romgaz, who added that the shares would become available for trading in the second half of the year.

BVB director general Stere Farmache told "Bursa" that the procedure of listing a company on BVB took between six and nine months from the moment when the respective company decided to list its shares. Also in the near future, preparations will begin to float packages of five percent each in Transgaz (gas carrier), Transelectrica (electricity carrier) and two of Electrica's branches (electricity company), also on BSE.

Romgaz has a share capital of 3,825 billion ROL. The State, represented by The Ministry of Economy and Trade, is the only shareholder. The company's profit tripled last year, reaching 2,829.2 billion ROL, against 947 billion ROL in the previous year. Dividends paid to The State amount to 671.5 billion ROL. The employees' profit share fund has been set at 121.8 billion ROL. In light of the outstanding results achieved last year (the tripled profit), The Ministry of Economy has decided to reward the company's general manager and administrators.

Romgaz will use half of the net profit made last year to partially cover the accounting loss of 2,423 billion ROL resulted from the application for the first time of international accounting standards. The company has also reassessed its tangible assets, the difference between the previous and the updated value being 2,667 billion ROL.