Minority shareholder asks buy-back at KazMunayGaz’s RO oil service division

Finnish investment fund KJK Balkan, which holds 10.7% of Rompetrol Well Services (PTR), the Romanian oil services division of KazMunayGas International (KMGI), proposed a share buy-back program of up to 28 million shares at a maximum price of RON 1.5 per share to reduce the share capital, Ziarul Financiar reported.

The buy-back operation would thus move RON 42 mln (EUR 8.6 mln) from the company's accounts to the shareholders.

KJK Balkan wants Rompetrol Well Services to buy back 10% of its shares, and has filed a request for a General Shareholders' Meeting to discuss this.

"The justification of the proposal is to optimize the company's capital structure, causing an immediate improvement in the return on equity with a positive effect on the value of shares and dividend per share," KJK Balkan says in a statement.

At the beginning of January, KMG International, which holds 73% of Rompetrol Well Services, rejected another demand from KJK for distributing special dividends from the company's reserves.

Rompetrol Well Services has over RON 90 mln (EUR 18.5 mln) worth of liquidities, almost double its turnover in 2020, according to the company's preliminary results.

However, most of the money is placed in a cash pooling system at group level. Rompetrol Well Services currently has a market capitalization of RON 122 mln (EUR 25 mln).

(Photo: Oleg Gerasymenko/ Dremstime)