“If we don’t sell at least 80% of shares, and the price is not higher than the minimum, the transactions will be cancelled and resumed next year,” said Lazar, secretary of state within the ministry.
The Romanian government on Tuesday set a minimum price of 0.3708 lei (EUR0.087) a share, Economy Minister Ion Artiton told MEDIAFAX.
Petrom, whose shares closed Monday in Bucharest at RON0.381 per share, is 51%-owned by Austria’s OMV AG (OMV.VI), which recently announced it wouldn’t participate in the secondary public offering.
Should the entire stake be sold at the maximum price, the government stands to collect RON2.564 billion (EUR610 million), but if all shares are sold at the minimum price, the government will collect only RON2.06 billion (EUR483 million).
The offer will unfold over two weeks up to July 22 and will be considered successful if 80% of shares are subscribed, at a price determined in compliance with the prospectus, the offer documents state.
The shares are allotted in two tranches: 85% for corporate investors and 15% for retail investors. Should one of the tranches be insufficiently subscribed, the shares left unsubscribed will be moved to the other tranche.
The operation is brokered by a consortium formed of Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital and Romanian brokerage firms BT Securities, Romcapital and EFG Securities. (EUR1=RON4.2717)
(English version by Andrei Circhelan. Editing by Bogdan Neagu)