SIF Banat-Crisana will become the majority shareholder in Gaz Vest Arad, one of the main private players on the natural gas distribution market, in the wake of a transaction to be completed in January, according to sources close to the company.
The financial investment company (SIF) currently owns 25% in stock of the company and will buy another 30% from Environmental Investment Partners (EIP) investment fund, under a complex deal.
The company will pay several hundred thousand euros for the 30% stake and will pledge to pay to the investment fund a certain percentage of the sum it will get when it exits Gaz Vest.
In recent months, the market has held information according to which SIF Banat-Crisana together with the other shareholders of Gaz Vest will sell the company, with Gaz de France deemed as one of the candidates for the takeover of the majority stake.
SIF Banat-Crisana, which will come to hold 55% of the stock in the wake of the deal, is planning, according to the above-quoted sources, to boost the company’s distribution network and exit the business after 2007. Gaz Vest at present holds a natural gas distribution network currently comprising 20 localities of Arad, Bihor and Timis counties.
Comera SA, a construction company controlled by businessman Liviu Ilievici, owns 46% in stock of Gaz Vest.
Ilievici was last year placed under criminal investigation for having caused losses of one million dollars to the company, after the audit operation that followed the inclusion of SIF Banat-Crisana into the company’s shareholding structure.
EIP entered Gaz Vest business in 2001 following investments standing at 3.3 million dollars. SIF Banat-Crisana has been a shareholder since last year, when it got to own 25% in stock after a capital increase worth almost 3 million euros. The representatives of the financial investment company stated several months ago that they would direct part of investments over the following years to the domain of utilities, which they say has a high development potential over the next years. Gaz Vest and Vitalgaz, operating in Brasov and Bucharest area, are the only large private gas distributors in Romania that do not have a strategic investor in their shareholder structure as yet. Congaz Constanta is about 28% owned by German group Ruhrgas. The Romanian gas distribution market is currently dominated by the two large state-owned operators, Distrigaz Sud and Distrigaz Nord.
In line with Finance Ministry data, Gaz Vest derived turnover worth 24 billion ROL (0.64 million euros) in 2003 amid losses of 22.5 billion ROL (1.59 million euros).