The acquisition of Petrom by the Austrian OMV group will mainly be financed through an issue of new shares on the Vienna Stock Exchange. OMV's Supervisory Board decided to increase the company's capital by issuing five million new shares, a part of which will be used to finance the takeover of Petrom, according to an Austrian official, quoted by Dow Jones Newswires press agency. The value of the funds the Austrians plan to raise from shareholders amounts to almost one billion euros.
OMV shares closed trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange last Friday at a price of 193 euros. At this price, the five million new shares the Austrians plan to issue will fetch 965 million euros, and OMV's market capitalisation will be 5.2 billion euros.
OMV shares have seen strong growth since the beginning of the year amid the negotiations for the takeover of Petrom. Over the last two months, following official announcement of the Petrom acquisition, shares in the Austrian group climbed almost 15%.
In July, OMV signed an agreement with the Romanian authorities for the purchase of a 51% stake in Petrom, Romania's largest Romanian oil company, at a cost of up to 1.529 billion euros. The Austrians will pay 669 million euros to the Romanian state for a 33.34% share in Petrom, and will contribute up to 860 million euros to Petrom's share capital increase, in order to acquire the full 51%.
The subscription period for Petrom's share capital increase will start in one week's time, and Petrom's minority shareholders, who own 7% in the company, will have the option to buy 0.49% of new stock for each share they hold at a price of 2,158 ROL/share. OMV may buy 1.4 new shares for every share held.
The subscription period will last for 30 days and will be managed by the Romanian Commercial Bank (Banca Comerciala Romana - BCR). On the Bucharest Stock Exchange on Friday, Petrom's closing price stood at 2,220 ROL, 5% down due to expiry of the reference date for buying shares as part of the capital increase. On the final day that shares could still be bought, Petrom was quoted at 2,340 ROL. Its shares recovered slightly yesterday, closing at 2,260 ROL.
The amounts to be raised on the Vienna Stock Exchange will also be used for other acquisitions, while the new stock issues will lift the OMV free-float from 45 to 50%.
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