Mariana Gheorghe, the CEO of the biggest local company, Petrom, says that the listing of companies on the stock market is likely to bring them financial discipline and believes that only a developed capital market could indicate the right price of traded shares.
"Capital markets bring financial discipline in companies. The stock market has a special potential in this regard in that it helps boost liquidity and the development of the capital market could lead to reflecting the right price of stocks," says the chief executive officer of Petrom. There have been intentions officially voiced over the last few years to float key companies in the energy sector such as Romgaz, Hidroelectrica and Nuclearelectrica, but nothing has materialised yet.
The only two major companies in the energy sector to have recently floated are Transelectrica and Transgaz.
The biggest local company has been traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange since 2001.
"We have not used the capital market to finance investments, but have managed to raise more than one billion euros from financial markets since October last year in order to fuel our business. Hedging instruments were our response to the crisis that hit us, and others for that matter," Petrom's CEO added.
She says she expects the petroleum barrel to fluctuate between 65 and 75 dollars by the end of the year, though she does not rule out possible speculative fluctuations.
The petroleum barrel had reached 68 dollars yesterday, almost double the value at the beginning of this year, but much lower compared with the record high of 147 dollars reached in July 2008. Petrom insured 40% of its petroleum output via hedging instruments, an operation that will extend to 2010, as well.
"Petroleum price hedging instruments helped us in the first half and we will use them in 2010. The hedging was done by Petrom and by
