Energy industry lands record deal of the year (Deals of the Year)

The KMG deal sent Dinu Patriciu to the top of the list of the richest Romanian businesspeople. According to the contract, Patriciu will remain a significant shareholder and CEO of the group. Rompetrol was evaluated at $3.6 billion at the moment of the transaction. The Rompetrol Group posted turnover of $3.8 billion last year and expects a turnover exceeding EUR 7.3 billion this year. This deal opened the doors for Romania to partner with Kazakhstan in other sectors of the power industry, such as equipment delivery. The Kazakh authorities also voiced interest in the route of the Constanta-Trieste pipeline.

Petrom, the biggest oil and gas company in Romania, also finalized some key deals this year. In mid-September, it acquired the oil service activities of Petromservice for EUR 328.5 million. The assets of Petromservice consist of mobile assets, accessories and storage, buildings and land as well as several contracts regarding oil service activity. Petrom announced significant investments of around EUR 90 million over the next few years in modern technologies and equipment, infrastructure and IT applications. After this transaction approximately 9,800 employees of Petromservice will be transferred to Petrom.

French company, Gaz de France paid $20 million for the majority share package at Depomures and Amgaz, the Romanian operator for gas deposits. Media reports announced that the foreign investor was planning investments of EUR 130 million to increase the local company's storage capacity for natural gases.
The completion of the sale of 67.5 percent of Electrica Muntenia Sud, a regional energy distributor, to Italian company Enel for a total of EUR 820 million, was another landmark in the energy sector. Electrica Muntenia Sud will spend EUR 50 million by the end of the year to modernize its network, a 25 percent increase compared to works in 2006. Enel owns majority stakes in the power distributors Electrica Banat, Dobrogea and now Muntenia Sud.

Dana Ciuraru

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