Austrian petroleum group OMV, Petrom''s majority shareholder, intends to support the quote of Petrom shares by buying shares on the stock exchange, in case the company''s employees sell the shares received from the state as part of the privatisation process, Economy and Trade Minister Codrut Seres stated.
"OMV is considering having funds set aside in order to buy these shares when the market becomes too liquid, before others do," Seres said.
He added he had previously had a number of talks with OMV''s chairman Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer on this topic in Vienna.
OMV took over 51% in Petrom in 2004, in a deal worth 1.5 billion euros and intends to boost its stake.
Another party interested in taking over the 8% in Petrom is this company''s Employee Association (PAS), run by the powerful union leader Liviu Luca. PAS Petrom gathered proxies from 55,000 current and former employees of the company to buy the shares and selected Credit Suisse First Boston investment bank that should provide a loan to the employees upon the acquisition of the shares.
A possible sale of the shares of the employees on the Bucharest Stock Exchange caused investors to panic three weeks ago, with Petrom''s shares subsequently falling about 8%.
"Maybe this explains why I am being made to look like the bad guy here and why the state is fighting us, the Association, to keep us from getting the shares," Liviu Luca commented on the statement of the Economy Minister about OMV''s plans to buy the employees'' shares.
OMV officials had made no comment on this topic by the time the story was ready for print.
The sale of the shares to Petrom employees is one of the biggest transactions on the Romanian market this year.
The employees and retired employees of the largest petroleum company of Romania have the right to buy 8% in Petrom at the same price as paid by the Austrian group in 2004, 5.25 eurocents/share. Under the circumstances, the acquisition by the employees of the 8% stake will be worth approximately 235 million euros, about half a billion euros lower than the market price, 0.565 RON/share. Petrom shares rose by 4.6% during the latest trading session, with the company''s market capitalisation going up to 9.118 billion euros.
The sale of the shares to employees has now reached the stage when the government is to debate the normative act draft that regulates how the eight percent in Petrom will be sold to the employees.
The memorandum submitted by the Economy Ministry to the Government proposes two options for the sale of the shares to Petrom employees, both directly and in such a manner as to involve an association of employees.
Premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu has repeatedly said he favours a direct sale of Petrom shares to employees.
Seres specified some government officials had suggested that the sale of the shares bought by the employees should be prohibited for two or three years to protect the market.
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