The state to sell its shares in "Petrom" in September

The draft bill concerning the sale by the state of a 11.84% stake in "OMV Petrom" will be discussed in Wednesday"s government meeting, Adriean Videanu, the minister of the Economy said. He said that most likely, the public offer for the sale of the stock on the Bucharest Stock Exchange will most likely take place in September, after the selection of the brokerage firm that will intermediate the offer. "In my opinion after the sale of this stake, the state could participate in the share capital increase that < Petrom > needs", Videanu said in a press conference.

He said that work is in progress on the strategy for the sale of the minority stakes hat the Ministry of the Economy holds in the energy companies. Videanu said that after "Petrom", the state will sell minority stakes in "Transgaz" and "Transelectrica", and later in "Oil Terminal" and "Conpet". "The pace of the public offers will be discussed with the members of the Stock Exchange", he added.

Adriean Videanu said that he does not agree with the experts that claim that the state is doing a bad deal selling its holdings at this time: "The privatizations which were made through the Warsaw Stock Exchange were a success and helped boost the relaunch of the Polish economy. I have faith that we will get a good price for the shares of < Petrom >, even better than the one we got when we privatized it. With 8% we have the same control and voting rights that we had with 20%. What"s more, the company announced that it needs a share capital increase. This way, either the state would have needed to invest a sizeable amount to keep the size of its stake unchanged, or see it diluted if it didn"t participate, meaning it would have lost money either way. I am convinced that selling the shares on the BSE will bring a significant amount to the state budget".

At the time of privatization, "OMV" paid 0.0525 Euros/ per unit for "Petrom" shares (0.2158 lei, at the time of the deal). Yesterday, shares of "OMV Petrom" (SNP) traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, at prices ranging between 0.306 and 0.391 lei/share.