Rompetrol sees 500m-euro losses in five years

Rompetrol Rafinare (RRC), the main company part of Rompetrol group controlled by Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz group, last year reported losses of 669.7m RON (around 159m euros), the biggest in the company's history and one of the biggest losses registered by a Romanian company last year.
This is the fifth consecutive year when Petromidia reported a negative figure, with total losses standing at almost 2bn RON (504m euros).
"As long as it is backed by the majority shareholder, Rompetrol Rafinare can operate further. However, the figures are not encouraging at all," says Adriana Marin, head of the research department of UniCredit CA-IB Securities brokerage.
The company's late 2010 debts, which totalled 5.5bn RON (1.3bn euros), are largely inside-group debts, namely to KazMunaiGaz group, amounting to 3.3bn RON (771m euros).
In late September 2010, tax authorities froze some assets belonging to Rompetrol Rafinare so that these should not be sold until the 571m-euro debt Petromedia had to pay to the Romanian state by September 30 was recouped.