The deal by which the state wants to sell a 9.84% stake inPetrom (SNP), the biggest Romanian company, will be the biggest onesealed so far on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
The offering, valued at 500m euros, generated a flurry of talksbetween Bucharest, London, New York and even Moscow, with the mostimportant domestic brokers trying to find partners among theworld's biggest investment banks in a bid to get the state'smandate to sell the 5.5 billion shares. No domestic broker cancarry out such a sale on its own and this is why it must enter aconsortium.
Whereas until two years ago no major foreign investment bankerwould not get out of bed in the morning for offers of below onebillion dollars, now all the large banks are knocking on domesticbrokers' doors and have activated all their connections to gainthis mandate, which is likely to bring underwriters between 5 and10m euros, with the sum being now, amid the crisis, enough for anybanker.
The mandate will be awarded on the basis of a score where thefinancial part, an objective criterion, and the technical part, thesubjective criterion, will weigh equally. Phones at the highestlevel, both politically (Government and PDL) and economically, areexpected to be continually busy because beyond the fee to becollected, the mandate is a trophy for any investment banker.
The battle will also be fought among domestic law firms, as a legalconsultant is needed when the stock sale prospectus is drawnup.
Two weeks before the deadline for bid submission, four powerfulconsortia have already emerged, which are likely to fight the finalbattle, with each of them being made up of a foreign bank and adomestic broker.
Morgan Stanley, the world's biggest stock offering underwriter in2010, teamed up with Raiffeisen Capital&Investments, thedomestic brokerage that was involved in the most importantfloatations on the Bourse of the past six years. JPMorgan will forma consortium with BCR, the biggest domestic bank. Wall Street'smost influential bank, Goldman Sachs, partnered with UniCredit CAIB Securities, while ING Bank will team up with a Swiss bank, mostlikely UBS, according to capital market sources.
Citi, too, is reportedly interested in taking part in the selectionprocess and is currently seeking a domestic partner. Deutsche Bankis also looking at the deal, but has not chosen a partner, and Bankof America is also reading the list of domestic brokers that areleft.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
