“Petrom is a very valuable company for Romania… the government will monitor the markets very carefully and will decide on the best moment to resume the sale,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said subscriptions during the secondary offering that took place between July 11 and July 22 fell short of the government’s 80% target.
Minimum price was set at 0.3708 lei (EUR0.087) a share, nearly 20% below the maximum price of RON0.46 a share.
A consortium formed of Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital and Romanian brokerage firms BT Securities, Romcapital and EFG Securities brokered the operation.
Romania, through the Economy Ministry, holds 20.6% in Petrom and estimated it would obtained between RON2.06 billion (EUR484 million) and RON2.56 billion (EUR610 million) from the sale of a 9.84% stake.
Prime Minister Emil Boc said earlier Friday that Romania “isn’t desperate” to sell its shares in Petrom at just any price. He added the authorities are waiting on the final results before deciding on a course of action.
In his turn, Economy Minister Ion Ariton said the sale process will be resumed in the first quarter of 2012 “at the earliest.”
“We’re looking for the best market conditions to resume the transaction. We want to sell at a fair price,” Ariton told MEDIAFAX.
On the Bucharest stock exchange Friday, Petrom shares traded down 1.9% at RON0.3762 before being suspended shortly after the Economy Ministry announced the offer was unsuccessful.
OMV Petrom is 51.01%-owned by Austrian OMV, which didn’t take part in the share offering.