Industry minister woos ENI and Chevron Texaco

Italy-based ENI Group is interested to participate in the privatisation of SNP Petrom, Industry and Resources minister Dan Ioan Popescu yesterday announced during the Forum Invest Economic Summit held in Rome.

Popescu added another player interested in this privatisation was American Chevron Texaco Group, one of the leading oil companies in the world.

The minister met his Italian counterpart Antonio Marzano in Rome, who agreed to have ENI (controlled by the Italian State) start the necessary procedures to participate in the privatisation.

“This was a theoretical agreement. The managers of the companies are to work out the details for a possible participation of ENI to Petrom’s privatisation,” Dan Ioan Popescu said.

He explained it would be best if Petrom’s future majority shareholder was running explorations in the Caspian Sea, considering the area was more than rich in refining capacity but lacked resources. ENI is one of the companies that have such operations.

The Romanian minister is set to travel to the United States next month in order to discuss with Chevron’s representatives.

The preliminary list of potential investors eyeing Petrom comprises 19 international oil sector names. The number of investors will most likely shrink to a handful in the end.

The privatisation schedule shows the announcement for the sale of Petrom shares has to be published in September.

“The deadline still stands. We are convinced Petrom must be privatised, but we will not engage in a race to sell at all costs. The market conditions and the quality of the tenders will make a big difference in this process,” Popescu specified. The consultant the State hired for the privatisation is the consortium comprising Credit Suisse First Boston and ING investment banks along with the Linklaters law firm.

The minister added listing an additional Petrom stake on the Stock Exchange was a strategy that would be maintained.

“Not listing the major Romanian companies is a mistake,” he concluded.

Petrom is the largest state-owned enterprise, with more than $2bn in annual turnover. It posted $70 million net profit last year. Its market value on the Stock Exchange currently reaches $1.45bn and was last trading for 1,230 ROL/share. The State holds 93% in Petrom, with the rest of the shares held by private investors.

Another Italian company interested in the privatisation in Romania is the national energy company ENEL. It is looking into the privatisation of the Romanian electricity distribution especially in the Dobrogea and Banat areas. The privatisation in this sector has made little progress, though.

“We’ve had three companies showing interest in the privatisation of the Romanian energy distribution companies: ENEL, an Austrian company and Greek PPC Group. The point is all of them are state-owned,” Popescu said after the meeting with ENEL’s representatives. laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro