Petrom gives for free 100 shares per employee, worth 6 euros

OMV Petrom Bucuresti (SNP – stock exchange symbol), the
largest company on the Romanian market, will distribute 100 shares
to each employee, worth around 26.9 RON (6.4 euros) on the Stock
Exchange. The company started a share repurchase programme on
Friday for a maximum of 10 million shares (worth around 650,000
euros), accounting for 0.02% of the company’s capital, for
distribution to employees. All employees who have worked for Petrom
for at least one day since takeover by Austrian group OMV in
December 2004 will be awarded shares, so the number of shareholders
could rise by around 55,000. Selling the shares could prove to be
quite difficult, considering that SNP shares are traded in packages
of at least 500 on the Bucharest Stock Exchange’s main market.
Petrom shares have risen 12% since the beginning of the year, with
the company’s capitalisation amounting to 3.79 billion euros.