Fondul Proprietatea: Selling 8pct of Petrom to employees a nightmare, since legislation not clear

The gov't intent to sell up to 8 percent of the Petrom shares to its employees will be a complex process that will generate litigations to stretch on several years, since the legislation is not clear as regards the beneficiaries and what is exactly the percentage in shares, on Friday asserted in a press conference Johan Meyer, CEO Franklin Templeton Investments and Fondul Proprietatea Fund Manager. "If such a transaction occurs, the Government will sell up to 8 percent of its shares at the privatisation's moment price. But the law is not clear over the percentage: it might be 8% or 0.1%. Also, it is not clear if it is about the employees at privatisation moment or the current employees. It's a nightmare. If it happens, years of litigations will unfold, because some will feel like being cheated," the FP official said. Yet, Johan Meyer doesn't believe that the gov' will undertake such a measure, not in the short term, anyway. On Monday, the president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE, minor at rule) asserted that the selling by the Romanian state of a share up to 8pct of Petrom will be addressed in the coalition's sitting. "We are facing a situation, the Petrom employees have won in court to buy Petrom shares. This is something provided by the Petrom privatisation law. The state has to sell up to 8pct of its shares. It is rather complicated, because we have to see whom do we sell to: the ones who were shareholders at the date the Petrom was privatised , which I'd find normal, or only to those who are today employed by Petrom. The court made no specification on this, the same that we have to keep in mind that only those who express this option could buy. And this is a technical matter that is only the gov't to deal with, but we still put it on the agenda as an issue that needs to be solved," Tariceanu had said on Monday.AGERPRES(RO - author: Florentina Cernat, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Maria Voican, editor: Bogdan Gabaroi)