English
The Kazakh state is not willing to pay the face value of the historic debt of "Rompetrol", Mr. Remus Vulpescu, the representative of the Romanian state on the Board of Directors of Rompetrol Rafinare said yesterday.
In his opinion, the escalation of the lawsuit between the Romanian state and KazmunayGaz (KMG), the shareholder of Rompetrol Group, could lead to a conflict in which everybody loses.
When asked if this stock sale by the Romanian state is opportune, Mr. Remus Vulpescu said: "I don't know that there is a < rush > to sell now. I do believe however that it would be a shame for the potential for cooperation between Romania and Kazakhstan to remain untapped because of the Rompetrol lawsuit. I do believe that a compromise solution acceptable for both parties would allow the beginning of further investments and the collection by the Romanian state of further budget revenues greater than the initial historic debt, at least in the future, after a few years of deadlock which was harmful for both countries".
In his opinion, the potential for cooperation between Romania and Kazakhstan, if correctly handled, could bring an additional 400-500 million Euros (500-600 million dollars) a year in revenue to the state budget, through the fiscal impact of new investments".
Remus Vulpescu also said: "When comparing things to the present situation, the Romanian state isn't going to lose anything. In June 2011, the independent courts have rejected the lawsuit of the Ministry of Finance, which was the justification of the ruling, the fiscal receivable was extinguished and in its stead, through conversion, the State received shares in a company with had a huge debt towards the majority shareholder, and which is only causing losses.
As a shareholder, the State would have to inject money into the company to cover the losses, whereas the majority shareholder would convert into share capital parts of its receivables.
As a collector of taxes, the State collects annually over 1 billion dollars in taxes from the Rompetrol group. I think that the interest of the state is for Rompetrol to work (and I don't see how else it could than with KMG at the helm, who is also bringing in the crude oil as well) and to pay taxes.
Compared to the state of things which existed prior to the court ruling, the State does indeed lose a great chunk of the historic debt. The issue could be raised of holding responsible the people who made the conversion/partial conversion into shares. I don't know if it would help ... As far as I've been able to tell, Dinu Patriciu is the one who bought at an undervalued price, and sold at an overvalued price, hence causing losses to the Romanian State and the Kazakh state alike".
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