The biggest local banks have from the very start lost the chance to broker the biggest share sales offering in the history of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with five consortiums left in the race.

The consortium consisting of BCR (the biggest local bank), JP Morgan (one of the top American banks) and Intercapital Invest (the most active independent broker on the Romanian market), created in view of brokering the sale of a 9.84% stake in OMV Petrom (SNP), was disqualified by the selection committee in the Economy Ministry through OPSPI (Office for State's Interests and Industrial Privatisation) because the documentation submitted did not meet certain requirements of the tender documents, according to market sources.

The decision comes as a shock considering that BCR and JP Morgan were considered, at least at first sight, among the favourites.

BCR and its American partner have, however, lost the chance to be finalists in the race to choose the broker the Petrom offering, which could bring the state over 500 million euros, and brokers a commission of 4 or 5 million euros.

Neither representatives of BCR nor those of OPSPI, which coordinates the process of selecting the broker, could be contacted for comment.

BCR's disqualification comes after BRD, the second-largest bank on the Romanian market, was eliminated from the very start citing the fact that it had submitted its bid after the deadline. BRD was in a consortium with French group Société Générale, its majority shareholder, and with American group Citibank.

Five consortiums are now left in the race to broker the Petrom sale: Raiffeisen with Morgan Stanley (US), Unicredit with Goldman Sachs (US), ING with UBS (Switzerland), Alpha Bank with Nomura (Japan) and Renaissance Capital (Russia) with BT Securities, EFG Securities and Romcapital. The winner is set to be announced today.

Th