Patriciu: "I would have paid the EUR 571 million debt of RRC"

Newsroom 06/10/2010 | 13:35

Romanian businessman Dinu Patriciu has stated yesterday at a press conference that “I would have paid the EUR 571 million debt of Rompetrol Rafinare (RRC) to the state budget.” Asked from where he would have brought the money he answered that “he left the company with operational profit.”

Patriciu stated as well that the fact that the majority shareholder KazMunaiGaz (KMG) choose not to pay the entire debt is a right gained by contract.

According to Patriciu, the RRC’s debt was taken into account when Patriciu sold the majority stake in The Rompetrol Group to KMG.

In October when Dinu Patriciu was Rompetrol owner, Nastase government has transformed in state bonds with seven years maturity the budgetary debt of Rompetrol. At September 30 the deadline has expired and KMG the new majority shareholder has decided in the general shareholders assembly to convert the bonds into shares. As such, the state became once again a minority shareholder at Rompetrol with a 44.69 percent stake. The government announced that would contest in court the RRC general shareholders assembly decision.