Conpet-Petrotrans merger this March

Oil carrier Conpet Ploiesti is due for a merger by absorption with Petrotrans by the end of March, so that the State would end up owning only one oil carrier, Conpet. The project to break up Petrotrans has already been approved so that Petrotrans’ assets falling into the public domain of the State will be transferred to Conpet, and Petrotrans will turn into a private railway operator. “The split project has already been endorsed and published in the Official Gazette in January. Creditors and small shareholders have 30 days to challenge it, after which the merger can be done, probably, in March,” sources close to the talks told Ziarul Financiar. The audit of the merger project for creating a single entity to transport oil via pipelines was conducted by Darian Rom Suisse Company last year. At the moment, both companies have devised their separate budgets for 2004 around the assets currently in their portfolios, as they do not know yet which ones will be transferred from Petrotrans to Conpet. Conpet expects $50 million turnover, the same as in 2003, while Petrotrans budgeted 800bn ROL (some $24 million) compared with a preliminary 600bn ROL ($18 million) turnover for 2003. ZF