Russians come first in race to broker Petrom's offering

Autor: Andrei Chirileasa 04.04.2011

The Romanian state is set to announce today whether it accepts to have the biggest offering in the history of the Bucharest Stock Exchange brokered by the consortium led by Renaissance Capital, half-owned by a Russian billionaire with an empire in gold production.

Russian investment bank Renaissance, in consortium with BT Securities (the brokerage division of Banca Transilvania), EFG Securities (the brokerage division of Greek group EFG, owner of Bancpost) and Romcapital got the highest score (92.5 points) at the tender organised by the state to choose the broker of the sale of a 9.8% stake in Petrom, according to sources present at the tender held at the Economy Ministry - OPSPI (The Office for State Stakes and Industry Privatisations).

The consortium that includes the Russian bank, which was formed at the last moment, is a total surprise for the market. Renaissance is a top-three investment bank in Russia, being held and run by a New Zealander. Mikhail Prokhorov, the second-richest man in Russia, with a fortune estimated at 13.4 billion dollars, holds 50% in Renaissance, Prokhorov owns the biggest gold producer in Russia and American basketball team New Jersey Nets.

Second in the ranking was the consortium made up of UniCredit and Goldman Sachs - USA (68.5 points), third were Alpha Bank and Japan's Nomura (67.7 points), on fourth place were Raiffeisen and Morgan Stanley (66.2) - considered to be the favourites of the race - and last came ING with UBS - Switzerland (59.73), according to the quoted sources.

As far as the financial offer was concerned, the Renaissance consortium is said to have offered 0.325% of the amount that the state will collect. If the state collects at least 500 million euros, as it hopes to, the commission would be 1.62 million euros. UniCredit/Goldman is said to have offered 0.74% and Raiffeisen and Morgan Stanley 0.892%. Nomura and Alpha Bank are said to have asked for 0.7%, while UBS and ING for 1.1%.

The technical value of the offers accounted for 50%, and the financial offer for the remaining 50%, based on which the final score was decided.