Romgaz, the Romanian national gas company, is due for privatization and many important business groups are eyeing it. Romgaz comes right after Russian gas companies in terms of size, on continental Europe. Romgaz produces 6 billion metric cubes of gas per year, of the 17 billion Romania uses annually; hence its privatization takes strategic overtones.
The Romanian Executive opened the bidding for the consultancy contract, for the company which will advise it to the planned privatization of Romgaz. So far 13 consultancy companies placed their offers: Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, CA IB Corporate Finance, Goldman Sachs and Lazard Freres go on their own into the bidding, while JP Morgan and ING Bank N.V formed a consortium, as did Bank of America Securities Limited, Central Europe Trust, Deloitte Central Europe, Allen Overy, Atkins and Racoti-Predoiu, for the same purpose.
Other consortia are Credit Suisse First Boston, Fondul Romano-American de Investitii, Linklaters, Miculiti, and Mihai & Asociatii; ABN Amro Bank and Musat & Asociatii; UBS Investment Bank and BAC Romania; BNP Paribas Corporate Finance, EPIC, Tuca & Associates and BDO Conti Audit Romania; HSBC Great Britain, BCR - Romania, Capital SA - Romania, FBD, and Racoti & Predoiu.
The consultancy team will be selected by the end of October.
According to Codrut Seres, the minister for economy and commerce, big corporations - as Lukoil, Gaz de France, Ruhrgas, Wintershall (Germany) and MOL - are keen to buy Romgaz. And the Executive counts on more bidders coming to the privatization bid once it will choose among the privatization strategies proposed by the consultant.
The only sure thing for now is that the control stock package will be sold to a strategic investor.
The steps up to privatization are: selecting the consultancy company, then evaluating the gas reserves