BUCHAREST: Romania raised $534m (¤395m) from the privatisation via a stock offering of a 15-percent stake in Romgaz, the largest producer of natural gas in Central Europe, the energy ministry said yesterday.
“This is a major moment in the history of Romania’s capital market, the beginning of a new chapter in the development of the stock exchange,” a ministry official, Gabriel Dumitrascu, told a press conference.
Bucharest had launched on October 22 an initial public offering on the Bucharest and London stock exchanges, hoping to raise between $425m and $567m.
The sale was part of Romania’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, in return for ¤4bn ($5.4bn) in standby aid.
The IMF and the EU insist that the sale of big, loss-making transport and energy companies will spur economic growth, which is expected to reach two percent in 2013.
Romgaz is the largest producer and supplier of natural gas in Romania with a production of 5.66 billion cubic metres in 2012, the Bucharest stock exchange said in a press release.
AFP
