Businessman Cristi Borcea, general manger of Dinamo Bucharest Football Club, has reached an agreement with Dutch-based SHV group to sell his LPG business, the Crimbo Gas group, in a deal worth 40-50 million euros, petroleum market sources told ZF.

The two parties had agreed on most of the deal's details, which is due to be closed at the end of the year, the quoted sources added.

The LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) business has been held by the Borcea family (Cristian and his wife Mihaela) and also a partner. The two parties, Borcea and the Dutch group, have been in contact for sometime, whilst the business has been up for sale for almost a year.

Borcea has sold the LPG part of his business, but retained his real estate operations.

The deal conducted by Dinamo's boss places the financial powers on the LPG market in balance after the departure of the Anglo-Dutch giant Shell, given that the newcomer runs a 5.5 billion-euro LPG operation and is present in 26 countries.

SHV Gas is part of the Dutch-based SHV Group, which is involved in a number of sectors such as renewable energy and the exploration and production of petroleum and gas. Borcea's former LPG business reached a cumulated value of approximately 30 million euros last year through Crimbo Gas 2000 and Crimbo Gas International.

Crimbo Gas 2000 posted turnover worth 24.4 million euros last year, an increase of 13 percent on 2005 and the same net profit as in 2004, 3.3 million euros.

Crimbo Gas International posted business worth 0.5 million euros, and registered 10 times greater losses last year against 2005, to 0.2 million euros.

This is the second-largest deal on the 320m-euro domestic LPG market, and brings to Romania one of the biggest global players, after Shell sold its LPG business this year and left the Romanian market. Shell Gas Romania was purchased by Petrom,