The age of state-secured funding for energy imports, one of the traditional businesses of the major investment banks operating in Romania, is on the verge of extinction now that the big players in the industry have been privatised and receive funding directly from their parent companies.
The big investment banks, like ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank, ING, Citibank and HVB, will only be able to lend 87 million euros (105 million dollars) with guarantees from the state, one of the lowest values since 1989. Compared with 2004, the cap for these loans is three times lower, and five times lower compared with 2003, according to data supplied by the Ministry of Economy and Trade.
State guarantees are not only granted for the so-called consumer import credits, which are used for buying fuel for the winter.
For example, Termoelectrica contracted a loan of 195 million euros from ING in 2004 in order to refinance a credit it received from the state to redeem bonds it issued in 2001.
Dutch ING Bank has granted more than 700 million euros in funding to companies in the energy sector over the last few years. And last winter ABN Amro granted more than 120 million euros in state-secured loans alone to Distrigaz Nord, Distrigaz Sud and to 20 thermoelectric power plants that are part of the Cogen association.
"The market (for state funding) is now at an all-time low, and we will have to reposition and regain these clients on the private segment," a representative of one of the main international lenders on this segment told Ziarul Financiar. The transfer of major domestic companies from the state to international companies like E.ON (Germany), Gaz de France (France) and Enel (Italy), as well as the efficiency improvements in the operations of electrical power producers like Electrocentrale Bucharest, have reduced the number of companies that have access to these types of loans, for which the authorities are trying to lower the limit as much as possible.
"The state has no way of vouching for a private company now. It''s true that the Economy Ministry still holds 49% in Distrigaz Nord, but things are different. Even if the company did need guarantees for a loan, they could not be anything other than banking guarantees," Virgil Metea, the general manager of Distrigaz Nord, a distribution company controlled as of this year by E.ON Ruhrgas, told Ziarul Financiar.
Companies like Petrom (petroleum), Distrigaz Nord and Distrigaz Sud (natural gas) and Electrica''s Banat, Dobrogea, Oltenia and Moldova branches (electricity) became privately controlled players this year.
Other companies tried to borrow to acquire fuel during the winter, trying to sustain this effort on their own without involving the state.
"Electrocentrale Bucharest has borrowed less and less every year. While we took out 160 million dollars in state-secured loans in 2003, we only got 60 million dollars in 2004. We intend to use our own resources this year," say sources with Electrocentrale Bucharest, one of the largest power producers in Romania.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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