The Economy Ministry says if the sale price of the 9.84% stake in Petrom on the Stock Exchange does not match expectations, the offering can be postponed, in an official answer sent to Ziarul Financiar.
"Considering the interest generated on the market by the listing of Petrom shares, we are sure that this secondary public offering will be successful.
If the price offered does not match the seller's expectations, there is the possibility of postponing the secondary public offering until the market proves the offering is timely," representatives of the Economy Ministry told ZF.
In the answer, it is also said that the committee, which will decide Petrom's sale price also includes, apart from Economy Minister Ion Ariton, Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomiţianu, Victor Cazana, the head of OPSPI, Andreea Vass, economic advisor of the prime minister, and Karoly Borbely, secretary of state in the Economy Ministry.
The latter two were not previously known to be part of this committee.
The Stock Exchange sale offering of the 9.84% stake in OMV Petrom (SNP) is currently one of the main items on the Government's agenda, being the most important "privatisation" after BCR's sale in 2005.
The Economy Ministry, which holds the stake in Petrom, has announced that the main goal was to maximise the price obtained from selling the shares, but the first clue as to the Government's target in this transaction was provided by Prime Minister Emil Boc, who said that by selling the 9.84% stale the state would get a higher price than that obtained by former Prime Minister Năstase from the sale of the entire Petrom in 2004.
The state then collected 669 million euros for a 33% stake in Petrom from Austrian group OMV, valuing the entire Petrom at 2 billion euros. The Austrians subsequently increased their stake to 51% through an around 830 million-euro capita
