Romania’s natural gas, available for trading
The gas producer Romgaz has listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange its first issue of bonds worth 500 million EUR
Roxana Vasile, 20.11.2024, 14:00
On Tuesday, the Romanian company Romgaz launched its first issue of bonds on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, worth 500 million EUR. Romgaz is the largest producer and main supplier of natural gas in Romania, where the state is the majority shareholder with 70% share participation. Along with OMV Petrom, Romgaz contributes to the national strategic project Neptun Deep in the Black Sea, which foresees total investments standing at 4 billion EUR, half of which must be covered by Romgaz. Total production is estimated at approximately 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Recently, Transocean Barents, the huge drilling platform contracted for the Neptun Deep project, arrived on the Black Sea coast, in Constanţa. Drilling will start in 2025, and the first gas will be exploited in 2027. Meanwhile, the money raised from the bond issue will be used by Romgaz to finance Neptun Deep, but also other goals in the company’s investment program. It’s worth mentioning in this respect that Romgaz aspires to enter the electricity supply market. Equally, the company seeks to transition to a low-carbon emission operating format. The bonds, also listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange since early October, represent only the first installment in a medium-term program that will allow Romgaz to issue bonds with a total value of 1.5 billion EUR.
Investor interest in these financial instruments is already significant, Romgaz CEO Răzvan Popescu says. However, in addition to important international investors, pension funds and other entities operating in Romania have also invested in Romgaz’s bond issue to an extent of approximately 20%. The issue was oversubscribed approximately 12 times, with pre-orders of around 6 billion EUR having been already submitted, a success praised by Secretary of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Mihai Precup:
“This, I think, is perhaps the biggest bond issue at the level of Eastern Europe by a state-owned company. In the last two years, after Hidroelectrica, today we are witnessing the largest bond listing in the history of Eastern Europe by a state company, a historic day”.
In turn, the president of the Financial Oversight Authority, Alexandru Petrescu, says that Romgaz’s bond issue contributes to the achievement of Romania’s strategic objectives in the field of energy:
“It is not just another instrument with fixed income. I think it sends a clear message – we are taking an important step in terms of the resilience of the energy sector, with a positive impact not only on Romania, but on Central and Eastern European”.
The bonds have a maturity of 5 years and a fixed interest rate of 4.75% per year. (VP)
