Romania’s Supreme Defence Council, CSAT, has decided to issue and sell new shares instead of offering existing state-owned stocks, taking into consideration Transgaz's need for liquidity, Chitoiu told local news portal Hotnews.ro in a phone interview on Sunday.
Transgaz is a partner in the Nabucco and AGRI gas pipeline projects and needs to secure funds for these major investments, he said, adding that Romania plans to increase its stake in the Nabucco project company to 22%-23% from 19%.
"If we had sold [existing state-owned] shares, the money would have gone to the Treasury, in the reserve fund, and they could have been used only for covering the public debt. We are interested in securing funds that would be at Transgaz's disposal for investments, via raising the share capital," Chitoiu said.
He added that the country should not sell state-owned stakes on the bourse as long as prices remain low but should rather "wait a month, two, three, until the capital market recovers or starts growing, so we can get a fair price."
The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Commission do not oppose the strategy change, he added.
Romania had agreed with the global lenders to launch a secondary public offering of a 15% stake in Transgaz on the Bucharest Stock Exchange earlier this year.
Chitoiu also said the gas pipeline that will allow Romania to export gas to Bulgaria is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, while the one that will allow exports to Hungary is planned to be ready in 2015 or 2016.
Romania has one gas pipeline connecting it with Hungary, which was completed in 2010 and handles only incoming supplies. Two reverse flow pipelines to Moldova and Bulgaria are under construction.
The government in Bucharest owns 73.51% of blue chip Transgaz, which is listed on the Bucharest bourse. Property restitution fund Proprietatea owns a 14.99% stake in the company.
The planned sale is part of a larger privatisation strategy which should see Romania divest minority stakes in key energy and transport companies, including Transelectrica, Romgaz, Hidroelectrica, Nuclearelectrica, OMV Petrom and Tarom.
