The government is selling 9.84% in Petrom through a public stock exchange offering, which started on July 11 and ends on July 22 (next Wednesday). However, at the moment no one knows how much was subscribed in the first three days of the offering, not even the prime minister, who is politically responsible for the result of the offering.
The reason for this is simple: subscription orders are not introduced into the system of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, as in the case of previous offerings–Transgaz (TGN.RO) and Transelectrica (TEL.RO)–but are centralized by the three local brokers that act as intermediaries of the offering together with Russia’s Renaissance Capital, namely BT Securities, EFG Eurobank Securities and Romcapital. They collect the orders in order books. Each of the three brokerage firms has its book, with representatives of the brokers saying firmly that none of them can know the others’ level of subscription, so they cannot calculate the overall level of subscription and the price.
Only the government committee that oversees the sale of the stake can ask the brokers to submit a daily account of the subscription level and to determine the overall subscription level and the price, but so far the committee has made no such attempt, sources close to the offering say.