Petrom buys Petromservice in EUR 329 million deal

According to Petrom, the acquisition will support two strategic objectives of the exploration and production division: the stabilization of the oil and gas production and reduction of production costs. “Therefore we took this opportunity to buy the oil service activities of Petromservice and integrate them into our company. This will allow us to undertake a large modernization process of oil services,” said Mariana Gheorghe, chief executive officer of Petrom.
Gheorghe said that significant investments of around EUR 90 million will be made over the next few years in modern technologies and equipment, infrastructure and IT applications. After the transaction approximately 9,800 Petromservice employees will be transferred to Petrom.
At the moment, both Petrom and Petromservice are waiting for the Competition Council to approve the transaction, which means that the deal should be closed at the beginning of next year. Petromservice was established in March 2002 through the externalization of several Petrom services.
The transaction brings into the spotlight two controversial businessmen: Liviu Luca, president of the Free Unions of Petrom, and Sorin Ovidiu Vintu, accused by prosecutors of fraud in the National Investment Fund (FNI) case. According to official documents, the most significant shareholder of Petromservice was, before the transaction was made, the off-shore company Elbahold Ltd., controlled by Vintu, who owned a share package of 49.3 percent.

Dana Ciuraru