Videanu promises to float Romgaz in nine months

Economy Minister Adriean Videanu suggested for the first time a deadline for selling a stake in Romgaz Medias on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, which could be the biggest floatation conducted on the local capital market so far.

Romgaz, one of the ‘crown jewels’ is, along with Hidroelectrica, one of the most valuable companies that are still state-owned, as shown by ZF’s most valuable companies yearbook, and its floatation could boost the Bucharest Stock Exchange’s capitalisation by 30%, making it attractive to foreign investors again.

Romgaz is one of the strategic companies, generating more than half of the domestic natural gas production. The ZF yearbook puts the company at some 2.7 billion euros.

The Economy Minister says that the two national energy companies, Electra and Hidroenergetica, which are to be created by merging the main energy generating facilities they control, might float in 2011, as well.

With the addition of the Property Fund, whose flotation is expected for the end of this year, the Bucharest Stock Exchange could suddenly become a pole of attraction in the region. The state has not listed any company on the Bucharest Stock Exchange since Transgaz’s floatation at the end of 2007.

“We want to have Romgaz float, we will begin evaluation and put the necessary documents together so that we could list 10-15% of its shares on the BSE in nine months. We are not considering privatisation with a strategic investor at this time,” Economy Minister Adriean Videanu said yesterday.

The sale of 10% in Romgaz on the stock market would put 100 to 300 million euros into the account of the Economy Ministry, which has officially expressed its intention to float the gas producer for the first time.