Romania raised over RON 315 M, or EUR 72 M, from the sale of a 15% stake in gas transmission company Transgaz.

Institutional investors bought 85% of the 1.76 million Transgaz shares offered in a secondary public offering at a price of RON 179 per share.

Eight percent of the shares were acquired by large investors bidding for more than 1000 shares at the same price, according to a statement of Raiffeisen Capital and Investment to the  Bucharest Stock Exchange.

According to Constantin Nita, the Romanian Minister Delegate for Energy, the offer was "significantly" oversubscribed and the sale was an encouraging step for Romania's future state asset sales.

The privatization is part of Romania's commitments to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which have requested the sale of large state-owned energy and transport companies to make them more profitable.

The next privatization deals are for Nuclearelectrica, the company which operates a nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, in May, followed in September by stakes in the gas producer Romgaz, the Oltenia energy plant and possibly in the electricity company Hidroelectrica.

In 2009, Romania received a bailout loan of EUR 20 B from the IMF and the EU, in exchange for which it resorted to dramatic spending cuts.

In March 2011, Romania signed a new agreement for a credit line of EUR 5 B to be drawn only in case of emergency.

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