The largest Romanian company, SNP Petrom, will go public on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) over the next two months, reviving the Romanian capital market, which has been struggling to shed anonymity for several years.
Foreign investors, who also happen to have plenty of money, say they do not invest in the Romanian Stock Exchange, as there are few profitable and large companies.
“This is good news for the market, mainly since the Stock Exchange has been planning to get SNP listed for years. We welcome this decision, as the market capitalisation will significantly increase,” BSE Director Stere Farmache told Ziarul Financiar.
When asked how much time the listing formalities will take, Farmache answered that nobody should worry. “We will do our best in order to get SNP listed as soon as possible.” Petrom General Assembly of Shareholders met last Thursday and decided that SNP would go public.
“Petrom minority shareholders asked for Petrom to be listed and the Resources and Industry minister appointed us to do so,” Iulian Gradisteanu, SNP Petrom Management Board President, specified.
The investment funds operating in Romania also requested that SNP Petrom should be listed, as they have repeatedly stated they intended to purchase shares in the Romanian oil giant.
Ioan Popa, SNP General Manager, added that this decision was made so that “the minority shareholders should not point at SNP, as they will benefit from their rights when the company goes public.”
“Floatation on BSE is a very important moment for the company, as new horizons will open,” Popa added.
At the end of March, the Management Board also agreed that Petrom shares would be listed. AGA has also decided to increase the company’s share capital by 18,641 billion lei, up to 39,201 billion lei.
The company’s budget for this year was adjusted, settling total revenues 18,145 billion lei higher and expenses up 18,295 billion lei.
SNP main shareholder is the Industry and Resources Ministry, with a 93.2% stake worth 36,545 billion lei, while private shareholders hold 6.7% of shares, standing for 2,655 billion lei.
Last year, Petrom registered 2,228 billion lei (98.1 million dollars) in net profit and total revenues worth 57.854 billion lei, while total expenses amounted to 55,805 billion lei.
SNP General Assembly of Shareholders on April 12 decided that the value of the dividends should be over 1,080 billion lei, of which 1,011 billion lei will be granted to the Industry and Resources Ministry, SNP main shareholder, while 75.3 billion lei will be distributed to the minority shareholders.
Petrom revenues dropped almost 200 million lei as the prices of oil products maintained below the oil quotations on the international markets. “For the first time since SNP was established, the refineries registered negative outcomes, with 253 billion lei in losses,” Ioan Popa stated.
He specified that Arpechim and Petrobrazi refineries were expected to register gross profit worth 4,400 billion lei if the ratio between car fuel and crude oil were 1.2/1, instead of 0.96/1.