Update: The insolvency application filed by Rompetrol SA was rejected by the Bucharest Tribunal; the decision can be challenged by representatives of the company within seven days after the decision is issued.
Rompetrol S.A., a company of KMG International Group (formerly Rompetrol Group), has requested the Bucharest Court, the opening of the reorganization procedure of the company, in order to continue the business operations conducted in Romania and abroad, announced KMG International.
In 2014, the Bucharest Court of Appeal imposed Rompetrol S.A. to pay 58.5 million dollars plus interest, for the last 14 years, in a case involving the acquiring by Rompetrol (a private company) the ownership of a claim that Romania had to recover from a business conducted with Repsol on the transfer of Libyan oil concession from Rompetrol (back then a state company) to the Spanish giant. Only a part of the money came from the Romanian state, namely 45 million dollars, said the court’s decision.
The facts on which the court ruled that occurred during the period 1999 – 2001 and after the 2014 decision, the authorities have imposed an insurance seizure of the goods of Rompetrol S.A., said KMG International.
“The enforcement of the decision, including the statutory interests, which according to the tax authorities represent an amount three times greater than the principal debit, creates a major financial imbalance for the company, with immediate effect in its current activities – the suspension of profile operations, the contracts in progress, the investments and by default on its employees,” says the management of the oil group now owned by KazMunayGaz.
The total investment in the development of Rompetrol S.A. in Romania of its exploration works and the acquisition of drilling rigs needed to expand the activities abroad, exceeds 50 million dollars. KMG International also stated that legal proceedings were initiated to enforce the obligations undertaken by the former owner of Rompetrol Group in the context of the decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
This last memo refers to an obligation assumed by Dinu Patriciu in 2007, with the Kazakhs from KMG, who took over the Rompetrol group, that he will bear all the consequences that stem from the claim of business conducted with Repsol in Libya. In other words, KMG International says that its heirs and DP Holding must return the money requested by the court, and not the current owner.
“The Rompetrol S.A. business reorganization will allow the continuing of the adjacent services of the land oil wells driliing activities in Morocco, where the company won a contract in 2014 and in Romania, where it has premises to move from the exploration phase to exploitation and oil production,” said the representatives of KMG International.
The group is present with over 12 thousand employees in 12 countries where it operates refining, petrochemicals, distribution, trading, industrial services, exploration and production of hydrocarbons. Rompetrol S.A. is one of the two group companies from the Upstream portfolio of the group, together with Rompetrol Well Services. In addition, the www.rompetrol.com website presented other 19 active companies in Romania or in other parts of the world.
By far the most important are Rompetrol Rafinare and Rompetrol Downstream, with annual turnovers of 11.7, respectively, 8.6 billion lei. Still on loss, both giants of the Rompetrol group is on a positive trend in the last years, approaching break-even. Smaller companies such as Midia Marine Terminal, Rompetrol Petrochemicals and Rominserv, gather together a turnover of about 1.3 billion lei in 2013, with a cumulative profit of about 155 million lei in the same year, the last on which data is available on the website of the Ministry of Finance.
Rompetrol S.A. announced for 2013 losses of 53 million lei, for a turnover of 57.5 million lei. It was the second year of losses in the last three, after good results recorded in 2009, 2010, with over 100 million lei profit and a turnover of over 250 million lei.
