Romanian oil and gas group OMV Petrom’s shareholders approved on Tuesday the company’s secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange.

OMV Petrom will issue global depository receipts (GDRs) for its secondary listing, which the group’s Executive Board has the mandate to carry on by end-2016. The group’s shares are trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) with the ticker SNP.

OMV Petrom is the largest listed company in Romania with a market capitalization of EUR 4.37 billion. The company’s shares have lost 25% of their value in the last 12 months, on falling oil prices and lower profits.

Romanian OMV Petrom’s profit drops by a quarter in the first half

The decision to list the company in London was supported by Austrian group OMV, the company’s majority shareholder, with 51% of its capital, and Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea, which holds 19% of OMV Petrom’s shares. Fondul Proprietatea also plans to sell a significant part of its stake in OMV Petrom via this listing, as the Romanian capital market still lacks the depth to absorb large share sales, according to the fund’s manager, Franklin Templeton.

Two of Romania’s biggest state-owned companies, gas producer Romgaz and electricity distributor Electrica, went public in the past two years via dual listings on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. Fondul Proprietatea itself went for a secondary listing in London this year, to attract new investors from among the investment funds that don’t find the Romanian market attractive enough to invest on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

The Bucharest Stock Exchange and the Romanian Financial Supervisory Authority have been trying to curve the enthusiasm related to the local companies’ London listings, as these may deter big investment funds to come to Romania, as long as they have the big Romanian companies available in London as well. However, with an average daily liquidity of only EUR 7 million so far in 2015, the BVB remains too small to catch the eyes of large fund managers, which may determine other local groups to go for dual listings.

Romania’s OMV Petrom considers secondary listing in London, Fondul Proprietatea may sell

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romana-insider.com