Thus, the Government approved the secondary public offering of 15% stake in Transgaz.
The government has recently extended by one year, until December 31, 2013, a deadline to list minority stakes in several state-owned companies on BVB and on international markets.
In an interview to the foreign media last week, Premier Victor Ponta said the Government will probably not manage to meet some deadlines agreed with International Monetary Fund IMF on selling stakes in state-owned companies due to political disputes between the Premier and president.
In the last letter of intent with IMF, the Government has pledged to hold public offerings for 15% of Transgaz by June 15, as in April has expired the last deadline to list the 15% stake in Transgaz.
Two weeks ago, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services placed its ‘BB+’ long-term foreign and local currency corporate credit ratings on Transgaz on CreditWatch with negative implications. The rating action reflects the likelihood that S&P will downgrade the company in the near term because of increasing pressure on Transgaz’s business risk profile.
Transgaz is 73.5%-owned by the Economy Ministry. Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) has almost 15% of its shares, while the rest is distributed among various shareholders.