CNVM is currently looking into Monday’s transactions of shares of Rompetrol Rafinare Constanta, Rompetrol Well Services and Rompetrol SA-Bucharest, part of Netherlands-based The Rompetrol Group NV (TRG - the second-largest player on the Romanian oil market). The decision to investigate follows suspicions that the market was impacted by leaks regarding the TRG takeover by state-owned Kazakh company KazMunayGas.
The deal was made public on Monday at noon, taking the entire Romanian business community by surprise, as Rompetrol owner, businessman Dinu Patriciu, sold a staggering 75 percent equity interest in TRG, assessed at an enterprise value of $3.616 billion (some €2.66 billion), to KazMunayGas.
Complaint. The Romanian Brokers’ Association requested an investigation, indicating that the company failed to inform financial markets in due time about the transaction. “The contract was signed on August 24, 2007, and the information was made public only at midday on August 27, through the media,” a press release of the Brokers’ Association relates.
Rompetrol officials indicated that the news was made public through the PR Newswire agency at noon, but the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) denied receiving the release before 13.51 hours. This has generated speculation that persons close to the deal might have manipulated the stock exchange. Patriciu has previously been accused of stock exchange manipulation, related to the listing of Rompetrol Rafinare on BVB, in 2005. The trial is ongoing and a new court session is scheduled for September 5.
