Gaz de France for Distrigaz Sud and Ruhrgas for Distrigaz Nord. The two foreign companies have been selected by the Ministry of the Economy to start talks for the sale of the two Romanian gas distributors.
The ministry’s official announcement confirms the market information circulating during the past few weeks, according to which the Russian group Gazprom, initially credited with the best chances of winning the race for Distrigaz Sud, had actually submitted the weakest bid. Market sources had been speculating that it was not going to be selected for the beginning of negotiations.
Beside Gazprom, the Italian group Enel has also left the race, although it had submitted offers for both Distrigaz Sud and Distrigaz Nord. Gaz de France and Ruhrgas had similarly placed bids for both companies. The selection was made after a detailed analysis of the bidding documents, the technical and financial offers submitted by the investors. The decision was also based on a scoring system.
According to sources close to the privatisation process, financial offers accounted for 80% of the final score. Thus, although Gazprom had proposed an advantageous long-term contract, stipulating gas deliveries totalling $200m, the company lost Distrigaz Sud because it had the weakest financial bid.
According to the quoted sources, the value of the offers submitted by Gaz de France, Ruhrgas and Enel for the acquisition of 30% in Distrigaz Sud ranged between 100 and 150 million dollars, whereas Gazprom’s offer was below 100 million dollars.
“In case no agreement is reached (with Gaz de France and Ruhrgas) on contractual stipulations, negotiations will be resumed with the other companies, based on the accumulated scores,” the Ministry of Economy said yesterday, without disclosing the contenders’ ranking.