The Employee Association of Petrom, the petroleum company held by Austrian OMV Group, is in negotiations with three banks for the procurement of an approximately 250 million euro loan to buy 8% in the company, Liviu Luca, Association chairman and leader of the Petrom unions, told Ziarul Financiar.
The banks involved in this framework loan include Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) and Raiffeisen Bank, sources close to the talks said. The third potential lender is also a major bank.
"We hope to contract the funding and buy the stake by this summer," Luca explained. He added that the approximately 250 million euro financing would mean setting a limit for the price of the shares.
BCR representatives did not comment by the time of going to press.
Raiffeisen officials categorically denied the existence of any talks by the bank for the granting of a loan for the acquisition of shares.
Petrom employees are entitled to buy up to 8% in the company at the same price paid by the Austrian investor for its acquisition of 33%. This translates to around 5.25 eurocents per share.
This means the employees represented by Liviu Luca would pay 235.2 million euros for 4.48bn shares in Petrom, given that the company's share capital is distributed over more than 56 billion shares.
The stake being eyed by the Petrom employees would be worth 609.6 million euros on the Bucharest Stock Exchange if calculated at the latest share price of 4,930 ROL (13.6 eurocents) - three times more than it would cost to buy.
Sources at the Economy Ministry say the acquisition of Petrom shares by the employees could be made at the exchange rate on the day the stake is purchased. By law, the employees are allowed to buy an initial 2% and then increase their interest to 8%. If the employees choose this solution, they would then pay only 58.8 million euros at first.
Last month BCR announced it would take out a syndicated loan for 400 million dollars (more than 307 million euros) from four investment banks: Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Calyon (the investment bank of French Credit Agricole Group), Citibank and the London-based branch of German WestLB Bank. Almost fifty percent of the loan, which matures in five years and comes with a four-year grace period, will be used for the bank's general funding purposes. The rest will go to early repayment of a syndicated loan.
BCR is the largest bank in the Romanian banking system with a 30% market share.
Last summer OMV signed the contract for acquisition of 51% in Petrom, one of the leading producers of petroleum in Central and Eastern Europe, in a deal worth some 1.5bn euros.
OMV initially bought 33.34% in Petrom for 669 million euros and then contributed a capital inflow of approximately 830 million euros to increase its stake to 51%.
The Austrian company evaluated Petrom at the time of the acquisition (mid July 2004) at 2.2bn euros. At stake in the acquisition was Petrom's exploration and drilling portfolio, which is estimated at one billion barrels.
OMV's transfer of the money for the capital increase caused Petrom's shares to surge on the stock market.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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