Net profit should stand at RON1.8 billion, which means a 5.5% lower profit margin than last year.
Romgaz posted revenues of RON3.8 billion and net profit of RON1.2 billion in 2012, therefore its profit margin was over 30%, which is good even for a private company.
According to the data ZF centralized last year, Romgaz is the second most valuable company in Romania after OMV Petrom (SNP.RO), more than EUR3 billion.
Its 2012 profit is the double the profit of Transgaz (TGN.RO), Hidroelectrica, Nuclearelectrica, Transelectrica (TEL.RO), Electrica and Complexul Energetic Oltenia (Oltenia Energy Complex) taken together.
Romgaz is in charge of half of the gas reserves of Romania, while OMV Petrom is in charge of the rest.
The company also expects a significant increase in the number of employees, by almost 700, this year, as a result of it getting the Iernut thermoelectric power plant at the beginning of 2013. The power plant has a capacity of 800 MW and up to 5% market share.
After taking over this asset, Romgaz started to participate in deals on the bilateral contract market of the OPCOM energy exchange and has recently gotten into spot transactions.
The number of employees should reach 6,615 by yearend.
Romgaz is also getting ready for an initial public offering of 10% of its shares. The syndicate that should take care of the IPO of Romania’s most profitable state-run company includes Goldman Sachs, Erste-BCR and Raiffeisen Capital & Investment.
Keeping long-term development in mind, Romgaz also partnered with Lukoil last year and reached a deal with Petrom and ExxonMobil this year for drilling in the Black Sea. It only has 10% of each of the two projects.
Its business stands all the chances of growing over the coming years once the gradual deregulation of gas price starts. The price of domestically drilled gas should go up from RON49 per MWh (about RON519 per 1,000 cubic meters) to RON119 per MWh (RON1,261 per 1,000 cubic meters) in 2014 for industrial consumers and in 2018 for household consumers.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)