The interest of investment funds for OMV Petrom shares continues, with 26 million company shares being transferred on the stock market on Thursday, at a price of 0.47 lei/share. The value of the deal was RON16.9 million (EUR3.9 million). The price at which the transaction was sealed was 9.8% higher than the share price two weeks ago and 17.7% higher than a month ago (RON3.999/share).
The transactions come at a time when international markets are focusing on equity markets again, with stock exchanges boasting significant inflows lately. Foreign investors are starting to rediscover the Romanian market after a period during which problems in Europe had kept them away. Their main targets are the shares of the largest company in Romania, Petrom, and of the largest fund listed on the stock exchange, Fondul Proprietatea, the two most liquid companies on the market.
Petrom has gained around RON4 billion (EUR920 million) in value from the beginning of the year alone and is currently valued at RON26.1 billion (EUR6 billion). Austrian OMV, which owns 51% of the shares, has thus gained EUR470 million, while the state and Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO), which own 20% of the shares each, are richer by EUR185 million each.
Analysts estimate that Petrom could end 2012 with a profit of around EUR1 billion if the company doesn’t include in its fourth quarter results the amount it was fined by the antitrust authority.
Petrom’s shares have been targeted by several deals lately. Last month another 37 million-share stake was transferred in a deal worth over RON14.6 million.
The significant rises recorded by these shares in the last month come despite the fact that about two months ago the EBRD had to cut the market price by 6% in order to find buyers for 230 million Petrom shares (0.4% in the company). The EBRD then collected RON85 million (EUR18.8 million) after cutting the price to RON0.37/share. The buyers cannot sell the shares for a few months.
The price at which Petrom shares were trading on Thursday is 27% higher than the price at which the EBRD sold the 0.4% stake two months ago.
In the summer of 2011 the state put up for sale a 9.84% stake in Petrom as part of a public offering conducted on the stock exchange.
The minimum price then asked by the state was RON0.3708/share, lower than the current market price of RON0.3762/share, but the offering did not generate enough interest among investors. At the time they deemed the price too high amid uncertainties over Greece’s problems and amid problems in other peripheral euro-zone countries.
After the failure of the offering, President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta said that Romania no longer wanted to sell the stake, as Petrom had made a significant gas discovery which would in the future cover Romania’s consumption without the country needing to resort to import gas.
About 70% of Romania’s gas consumption is covered from local production and most of the remaining 30% comes via imports from Russia.
Basescu also said that Romania would become a key player on the energy market in the next ten years if the gas extraction project proved successful.
In February last year U.S. giant ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom reported a significant gas discovery at their joint Domino-1 deepwater well in the Neptun block in the Romanian section of the Black Sea.
As the Romanian state no longer plans to sell the around 10% stake in Petrom, investors have missed the opportunity of buying this major stake, which they cannot buy directly from the market.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)