Financial Press Review, 25 July

Today’s main topics of the financial press are the Petrom failure, the intention to revive the labor market and tighter conditions on market products.

Most financial dailies attempt to spot the causes of the “surprising” failure announced by Petrom on Friday: the biggest Romanian company, and one of the most lucrative, intended on selling almost 10 percent of its shares.

In the end, only 48 percent of shares were subscribed by investors, according to sources in the market”, the Ziarul Financiar writes below the headline “Russians, the weak link in Petrom offer”.

The subscription level has not and will not be officially revealed.

The state should take notice that “the smallest commission does not always guarantee the best results”, the Ziarul Financiar writes below the headline “Who is responsible for the failure?”

The Curierul Naţional reads on the first page: “Petrom offer – Golden Raspberry script”. “The further from the number of shares subscriptions were, the more the state should realize how far they were from market expectations”.

The result “is not a positive sign for the market nor a reason of joy”, the Ziarul Financiar reads in another article with the headline “Stock Exchange has to digest the Petrom failure”.

“The failure has delayed the privatization calendar. The local capital market will not be considered an emerging one”, the Curierul Naţional reads.

The Săptămâna Financiară reads that the consequences of this failure “will be felt in the next months”, and that the agreement with the IMF and the European Commission.

The Bursa reads that “EBRD estimated that Romania will have a 1.9 percent economic growth this year”.

The Ziarul Financiar reads: “IMF to send a mission in Romania for measures to revive labor market”.

Our country has one of the highest unemployment rate in Europe.

Compared to 1990, when 8.1 million people were legally employed, the employment rate is two times smaller.

In reality, however, 9 million people are currently employed.

The Curierul Naţional dedicates an article to “the alarming number of fake medicine on the market: they contain ingredients that fail to meet quality standards, have an inadequate dose or do not contain active substances at all”.

The Ziarul Financiar reads: “Small-time milk producers still have time to modernize their farms”.

“To meet EU standards, the milk has to come from healthy cows that are milked electrically.

“The local dairy market amounts to 1 billion euro, and is considered the segment with the highest growth potential in the food industry”.

Translated by: Gabriela Lungu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University