OMV Optimizes Network in Austria While Giving €500m Credit to Petrom

                                                                                                         Petrom CEO Mariana Gheorghe said in a statement with regards to the credit line "This funding line is part of a larger funding programme agreed in June of last year, necessary to support the company's restructuring and modernization,". In October 2008, Petrom said it arranged a three-year credit line worth roughly €375m from a consortium of five banks.

With regards to the OMV network of 559 service station network in Austria,  60 locations under the Avanti and OMV brands have been sold to new operators.  The next stage of their plan is to place an additional 70 OMV and Avanti service on the market.

With intensive competition in the petrol retail market, the OMV strategy is to continue to consistently focus on quality and convenience and to strengthen and further expand premium station locations as well as the VIVA brand. This requires locations with high customer frequency.

With regards to the sites sold, 28 of the OMV and Avanti service stations sold in Styria and Carinthia were taken over by Annawitt, a company based in Graz, and will operate under the A1 brand.

11 of the OMV and Avanti filling stations in Burgenland were acquired by the Vienna-based petroleum company AWI Mineralölgroßhandel and will be rebranded with the AWI brand.

11 stations in Tirol and two stations in Vorarlberg will become part of the service station network of the Gutmann company. The firm Leikermoser acquired two OMV filling stations in Salzburg. The balance of service stations were sold to privately as  individuals sites.

It is planned to sell the next 70 OMV & Avanti site by the end of the year. At the same time, their development  program  will see another 200 VIVA C-stores rolled out.

PetrolWorld 220109