On 8 May 2019 the Romanian High Court ruled that the state must move forward with the sale of an 8% stake in OMV Petrom to the companyâs employees as provided by the 2003 decree on the privatization of the former state company. It is recalled that Petrom was sold to Austriaâs OMV in 2004 for a consideration of EUR 1.5 billion, the Romanian state keeping a 20.6% share in the group. If implemented, the sale of the 8% stake to Petromâs employees, which has been long delayed due to difficulties to determine which employees should be entitled, should be done at the same price paid by OMV in 2004, i.e. approximately 54% of the current price of the share. It remains unclear which employees would be allowed to purchase the shares (at the time of privatization Petrom was employing 60,000 persons versus 12,500 today). The ruling coalition in Romania was discussing the matter in late-June 2019.
On 8 May 2019 the Romanian High Court ruled that the state must move forward with the sale of an 8% stake in OMV Petrom to the companyâs employees as provided by the 2003 decree on the privatization of the former state company.