Romanian oil and gas group OMV Petrom is currently working on securing a EUR 1 billion loan from a consortium of Romanian and foreign banks.

The company could finalize the deal by the end of the week. BRD Groupe Societe Generale and UniCredit Tiriac Bank are the intermediaries, according to banking sources quoted by globalcapital.com.

OMV Petrom will use this new facility to refinance a EUR 930 million multi-currency credit line it signed with local and foreign banks in 2011. The group hasn’t drawn any money from this facility, according to its 2014 annual report. This credit line expires in November 2016.

The group had several unused credit facilities at the end of December 2014. The group’s total loans outstanding amounted to some EUR 420 million, 85% of which were long-term loans from EBRD and EIB.

OMV Petrom has financed most of its investments in the past years from its operational profits. Only last year the company invested some EUR 1.4 billion, most of it in the exploration and production (upstream) operations.

The group’s results were affected by the drop in oil prices, in the second half of 2014. OMV Petrom posted a consolidated net profit of EUR 473 million, less than half of its record net result in 2013, as sales went down by 11%, to EUR 4.85 billion. The bottom line was also affected by one-off expenses related to the depreciation of its Gas and Power assets and its operations in Kazakhstan.

Austrian group OMV owns 51% of OMV Petrom. The Romanian state has a 20.64% stake, and investment fund Fondul Proprietatea holds 19%, while the remaining shares are freely traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. OMV Petrom has a market capitalization of EUR 4.92 billion (as of April 21, 2015).

Romania’s OMV Petrom cuts dividends on lower profits, shares drop

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com