May 20 (SeeNews) - Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz [BSE:SNG] will seek its shareholders' approval for plans to invest 15.7 billion lei ($3.55 billion/3.2 million euro) until 2025, it said.
The investment programme, on which the shareholders will vote on June 15, will be oriented mostly towards natural gas production, associations and partnerships in Black Sea offshore projects, electricity production and storage, as well as towards the diversification of its portfolio, namely petrochemistry and electricity production, Romgaz general manager Adrian Volintiru said in a press release on Tuesday.
"However, I would like to mention that the elaboration of the strategy was based on the business as usual scenario, without taking into account the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic and it is necessary to review the information as soon as there will be macroeconomic forecasts with a higher degree of certainty," Volintiru added.
Some 49% of investments will be financed through the company's own sources, 44% will be covered by creditsand 7% by European funds, Romgaz said in its investment strategy.
On May 12, Romgaz launched a 1.1 million lei tender for a study on its possible entry on the renewable energy generation market, according to an announcement published in Romania's electronic system for public procurement, SEAP.
The company's first-quarter net profit rose 5.5% year-on-year to 571.9 million lei, while revenue decreased 16.5% on the year to 1.43 billion lei.
The majority shareholder of Romgaz is the Romanian state with a 70% stake, with the balance of 30% in free float on the BVB.
According to data available on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), Romgaz share price rose by 7.77% in the last month and by 2.69% in the last week.
Shares in Romgaz traded 0.16% lower at 30.45 lei lei by 1635 CET on Wednesday on the BVB.
(1 euro=4.8421 lei)