OMV has closed the sale of its 45% stake in the German Bayernoil refinery network, another step in its downstream divestment program that targets to sell assets worth 1 billion euros by the end of 2014, the energy group announced.

In December last year, OMV agreed with the buyer, Varo Energy, a joint venture between Swiss trader Vitol and private equity firm named Carlyle Group, not to disclose details of the purchase price, writes economica.net. Vitol has licenses to supply gas and power in Romania.

“With the closing of this transaction, OMV has once again proven its ability to implement the newly focused business strategy announced in 2011,” said Gerhard Roiss, CEO of OMV. “Since then, OMV has sold, among others, the filling station networks in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia as well as the lubricants business. All transactions have significantly improved the cash position of the company.”, he added.

“With the sale of Bayernoil, OMV’s optimization of the refinery portfolio is completed. The remaining OMV refineries are exceptionally integrated into crude and/or petrochemicals with the associated competitive advantages in our core markets”, said Manfred Leitner, Executive Board member responsible for Refining and Marketing.

OMV continues to operate three refineries with an annual capacity of around 17.4 million tons: those in Schwechat (Austria) and Burghausen (Southern Germany) feature integrated petrochemical production, while the refinery in Petrobrazi (Romania) is completely dedicated to processing Romanian crude oil and, therefore, 100% integrated with the upstream business.

OMV owns a 51% stake in Petrom, the largest oil company in Romania.