Its EUR74 million market capitalization makes Conpet the most valuable company to be listed at the first tier of the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the last few years and the most valuable company currently listed on RASDAQ.
“The Bucharest Stock Exchange’s board of directors is due to meet at the end of this month to agree on it and Conpet’s transfer to the first tier will take place some time in early September,” says Grigore Chis, general manager of Broker Cluj, the underwriter assisting Conpet in its listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
He says that once traded on a regulated market, Conpet shares will become available to pension funds and domestic equity funds, which could not invest in them so far because regulations did not allow it.
“I definitely expect Conpet to become more attractive for funds and I think it will be a liquid company. I expect Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) to make it so,” Chis said, adding he had not discussed it with the representatives of Fondul Proprietatea (which owns 29.7% in Conpet) yet.
Conpet has exclusive rights to operate the National Oil Transmission System for which it pays royalties every year.
It is a regulated monopoly and its transmission fees are set by the National Agency for Mineral Resources.
Conpet’s main customers are OMV Petrom (SNP.RO) and Petrotel Lukoil, which generated 70% and 29% of its revenue last year. It now has only two major customers, after a number of refineries (Arpechim Pitesti, Rafo Onesti and Rafinaria Steaua Romana Campina) have closed in recent years.
Romania’s oil imports have therefore declined sharply and refineries now tend to refine only the locally drilled oil.
Conpet offset the drop in the amount of oil transmitted by hiking transmission fees and therefore its business continued to increase. It has also been posting steady profit.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)