George Baesu, chairman of the National Property Restitution Authority (ANRP), who will supervise the EUR10 billion property restitution business, and Lucian Dan Vladescu, head of public procurement authority ANRMAP, will represent Romania’s government in Petrom’s board.
Baesu has close ties to the chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Vrancea branch Marian Oprisan, godfather of his son, and Vladescu used to go to law school with Prime Minister Victor Ponta.
They replaced Gheorghe “Bebe” Ionescu, a relative of Romania’s President Traian Basescu (father in law to his youngest daughter), and Constantin Dascalu.
Unlike OMV, where the Austrian government owns 31.5% and appoints as representatives people with years of experience in the business sector, the Romanian government prefers appointments based on political friendships.
“I say I’ve got the necessary knowledge about what Petrom does and about what the governments’ interests are in this company and I believe I can represent it in Petrom’s supervisory board,” George Baesu told ZF.
OMV has most members in Petrom’s supervisory board, five, i.e. Gerhard Roiss (the group’s chief executive), David C. Davies (the chief financial officer), Manfred Leitner, Jacobus Huijskes and Hans-Peter Florean.
Although its representatives could vote for other candidates than nominated by the Economy Ministry, the agreement is that the rest of shareholders back the two candidates the government proposes.
Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO), which owns 20.1% in Petrom, is represented by Mark Mobius, CEO of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, and the ninth member is Riccardo Puliti, who represents the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which holds 1.6% in Petrom.
During the same meeting, Petrom shareholders also appointed payment of 1.586 billion (EUR364 million) in dividends from last year’s record profit of RON3.946 billion. The dividends are 9.7% lower than last year. Gross dividend per share is RON0.028 or 6.2% of Petrom’s stock price on Friday, RON0.451. (EUR1=RON4.3552)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)