The privatisation of SNP (National Oil Company) Petrom is the event of the year, not only on the oil market or for the Romanian finances, but also for the corporate law, as the legal counselling for the new owner, including the post-acquisition period, is said to be worth $1-1.5 million.
This could be the biggest amount of money ever paid for legal counselling on privatisation and post-privatisation in Romania and certainly has every law firm trying to land the contract.
In the past few weeks, all the big law firms on the Romanian market have started a battle of their own for the privatisation of Petrom, trying to figure out the company that is most likely to buy Petrom and the right fee that could help them get the contract.
Although the shortlist of Petrom bidders includes 11 names, only three groups have retained legal consultants, two weeks before submitting bids, market sources say.
The Americans from Occidental have enrolled the help of Musat & Asociatii, Austrian group OMV has retained Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen (NNDKP), whereas Gazprom has chosen Racoti, Predoiu & Asociatii, the quoted sources say.
Besides the three couples, only two or three more bidders are in talks over legal services: PKN, TNK-BP and ENI, which are in negotiations with Popovici & Asociatii and Voicu & Filipescu SCA, the above-mentioned sources state.
According to market rumours, TNK-BP, which was initially credited with the most chances to win, is no longer planning to make a bid.
Musat & Asociatii and NNDKP, together with Linklaters, are the top three law firms in Romania, as they have both experience in privatisation and political influence. Linklaters, Europe's biggest law firm, is acting as consultant to the Romanian State for the privatisation of Petrom.
Musat & Asociatii was the consultant picked by LNM Holdings for the privatisation of steel mills Sidex Galati and Tepro Iasi and also advised the State in the privatisation of aluminium plant Alro Slatina and of Banca Agricola (the Agricultural Bank). The law firm is also assisting Enel in the privatisation of Electrica Dobrogea. The firm's officials would not comment on information about their contract with Occidental.
NNDKP participated in the privatisation of national telecom operator RomTelecom, Banc Post, Banca Agricola (counselling the buyer), cement company Romcim and Banca Comerciala Romana (Romanian Commercial Bank-BCR) and is assisting the State in the privatisation of Electrica (power company) subsidiaries.
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro
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