“A successful transaction means getting a fair price and wide interest from investors all over the world, and in the following weeks the Financial Times to write on its first page about this privatization and to get the attention of investors all around the world,” Jennings told ZF in an interview.
The head and founder of Renaissance Capital, the investment bank leading the consortium brokering the public offering by which the Romanian Economy MInistry is selling 9.84% in OMV Petrom on the bourse, arrived in Bucharest at the end of last week to discuss the latest details of the offering with government representatives.
This is his first visit to Romania and it shows how important
the transaction is for the bank he runs.
Earlier this year, Renaissance Capital announced it planned to make
strong inroads in the Romanian market. Petrom offering is the best
opportunities for the Russian bank to build a presence on the local
market. Renaissance Capital is controlled by Jennings and Russian
billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.
Jennings said that judging from the meetings he had had with
investors in London, there was interest in Petrom offering and
interest in Romania was generally high.
“There is interest for the company and also interest for Romania is high. This is why this transaction is a big opportunity for the country to get on the radar of the large institutional investors,” Jennings says.
Romania put up for sale a stake of 9.84% in Petrom at a maximum
price of RON0.46/share. This is the largest offering in the history
of the local bourse, with the maximum value topping EUR600 million.
In the wake of the deal, the state will be left with around 11% of
stock.
Romania has little visibility in the international financial press,
and the few stories appearing in the Wall Street Journal or
Financial Times generally deal with negative issues, such as the
donation the Romanian state asked from Romgaz last year.