The minority shareholders of Transelectrica want money for the sale of the OPCOM

OPCOM, the manager of the Romanian energy exchange, is wholly owned by Transelectrica SA, the national electricity transporter. Following the decision of the government to transfer Transelectrica from the Ministry of the Economy to the Ministry of Finance, it was decided that the Ministry of the Economy would be left with branches of the OPCOM and Formenerg of Transelectrica, as well as the National Energy Dispatch.

According to some market sources, several minority private shareholders of Transelectrica claim that the company must receive financial compensation in exchange for the assignment of its branches - OPCOM and Formenerg - and they are opposing the transfer of shares in favor of the Ministry of the Economy.

The delegated minister of Energy, Constantin Niţă, said towards the end of last week, that OPCOM will have a private shareholder structure and that the opening of the shareholder structure to the private shareholders is an older project, but which never reached public debate.

The initial project was that, following the transfer of Transelectrica to another ministry, the shares of OPCOM would be divided between the Ministry of the Economy, Transelectrica and Transgaz. Later, they were going to sell the stakes to private investors and even to international financial institutions, so that none of the parties involved would own more than 5% of the OPCOM.

The company "Operatorul Pieţei de Energie Electrică" SA - OPCOM SA was created through the Government Decision (HG) no. 627/2000, as a branch which has Transelectrica SA as a sole shareholder. The purpose of the company is to ensure an organized environment for the commercial trading of electricity. The main activity of OPCOM SA is the management of the electricity market. In 2011, OPCOM had a turnover of 16.8 million lei and a profit of 239,816 lei.

The purpose of the Formenerg branch of Transelectrica is to provide training to personnel in the energy sector. Formenerg was set up on April 1st, 2002 and its main source of revenue is represented by the services it provides to Transelectrica SA (professional training). Over the last few years, Formenerg earned several companies as its customers.

Transelectrica also owns the branches Smart, Teletrans, Icemenerg and Icemenerg Service.