The state is preparing to list a further 10% of the stake it still holds in Petrom and already has the agreement of the majority shareholder, the Austrian company OMV for the move. This was announced by state minister Adriean Videanu during the "Economic year 2005 and the business environment" seminar organised by Finmedia, Mediafax reports.
The state retained 40.7% in SNP Petrom through the Ministry of Economy and Trade after the sale of the controlling interests to OMV.
Officials from the ministry and OMV were unable to confirm the news by the time of going to press.
Petrom, which is the largest petroleum company in Romania, currently has 6.2% of its shares listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
Ministry representatives had said recently that the sale of 10% in Petrom might be a good solution in two or three years when they may get as much as they did for the sale of 33.34% in the company to OMV. The state received 669 million euros for one third of the Petrom stock. OMV not only managed to recoup this money in a short time, but also made a profit given the value of the stake on the stock exchange.
The announcement by Videanu is to some extent a reiteration of the statement by Ionut Popescu, the Finance Minister, when he said that the money from the sale of Petrom could be used to cover the deficit in the state budget.
Apart from Petrom, Vice-premier Videanu also mentioned the state's interests in RomTelecom, Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) and Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni (Romanian Savings Bank - CEC).
"We will use the Bucharest Stock Exchange, especially for all the major privatisations. We will establish an inter-ministry committee to feed everything that qualifies as representative stakes held by the state into the stock market in order to take advantage of the good period the capital market is enjoying," said Videanu. adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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