Petrom bids not in line with the task book

(story to be published in tomorrow’s issue, March 22)

None of the five bids submitted for the capital increase of Petrom National Oil Company complies with the task book issued by the privatisation consultant, ABN Amro Rotschild, Trade and Industry minister Radu Berceanu told Ziarul Financiar. “There is a programme for the study of bids submitted by investors interested in participating in the first privatisation phase but, as far as I know, none of them is great,” Berceanu says. He says that when all the discussions are finalised, the governmental commission together with the consultant will draft a report to be submitted tot he Government. This will happen at the earliest at the end of April. “Government either decides that none of the versions is satisfactory or passes on to signing the privatisation contract,” Berceanu added. He does not exclude the possibility of resuming the tender. For the first privatisation stage consisting in a 30 percent increase of the share capital, bids were submitted by a consortium led by the Greek company Hellenic Petroleum, by Italian group ENI, the Austrian OMV, the Hungarian oil producer MOL and by a Romanian consortium including Tofan Grup and Gelsor Financial Group. “The ENI bid is inappropriate for Petrom and it is not worth any attention at all from Romanian authorities,” Radu Berceanu said.