Romania's Transelectrica To Postpone Indefinitely Floating Further 10% of Its Shares - Media

“We cannot say that 2009 would be a good year for the [further] listing and we do not know when exactly we will initiate the listing of the other 10% of the shares,” Money Channel quoted the director of Transelectrica’s business development division, Razvan Purdila, as saying.

Ten percent of the company shares have been traded on the BVB since August 2006.

Transelectrica will raise by 10% to 15% the 600 million euro ($768 million) investments planned for the 2008-2012 period to expand the power grid and boost its transport capacity, Money Channel reported.

In September the power grid operator raised its forecast for 2008 gross profit by 33.3% to 120 million lei.

Transelectrica’s 2007 gross profit fell by 77% to 76.1 million lei on higher energy prices in the first half of last year, which were not included in its budget, and the depreciation of the Romanian leu versus foreign currencies.

Majority state-owned Transelectrica (www.transelectrica.ro) has a share capital of 733 million lei. It operates 77 power stations with a combined capacity of 33,506 megavolt-amperes and 8,950 kilometres of power lines. It employs 2,180.

The state owned 73.71% of the company and Fondul Proprietatea, an investment fund set up by the government to return property seized under communism, held 13.5% as of end-February, bourse data showed. The remainder is distributed among minority shareholders.

The company's stock traded 3.23% up at 12.8 lei ($4.5/3.5 euro) at 0803 GMT on the BVB on Monday.

(1 euro = 3.6664 Romanian lei)