After having postponed the endorsement of the privatisation strategy, the Romanian Government on Tuesday approved privatising Petrom by the sale of a 33-34% stake in the company, followed by a capital inflow from the investor, which should enable it to get the rest up to 51%.
In the end it was the option favoured by Dan Ioan Popescu, Economy and Trade minister, the consultant hired to assist the Romanian State and the World Bank that prevailed. The International Monetary Fund, whose expert delegation is in Romania at the moment, had pressured for the direct sale of 51% in Petrom, the second solution on the government's desk on Tuesday.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase had said right before the Government session that he was in favour of a "clean and fair sale, without all sorts of strange formulas like in RomTelecom's case," which led people to believe he might be a supporter of the IMF's option.
Still, the investors' wait is not over, as the privatisation strategy will be published in the Official Gazette soon and the privatisation announcement will be run in the domestic and international press. "In the end, when the game is over, the buyer pays roughly the same money, no matter if they buy 51% in Petrom or 33-34% and operate a capital inflow up to 51%. What matters here is who runs the company: the State or the investor? Who says how to spend the money? We're waiting to see the rules of the game once the privatisation strategy is published," Antonio Cambiotti, chairman of Agip Romania, the local branch of Italy-based Agip, a company part of the Italian oil group Eni, told Ziarul Financiar.
SNP Petrom's privatisation strategy endorsed by the Government entails selling 51% in the company to a strategic investor or investor consortium, with 33-34% sold at first and the investor required to feed capital into the company to cover the gap to 51% along with paying for the shares already sold, according to the Ministry of Economy and Trade.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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