To avoid any possible misunderstanding or misinterpretation by the public of the statements recently released by Mr. Daniel Horodniceanu regarding the status of a "Rompetrol file" in progress at DIICOT, KMG International provides the clarifications herein below.
KazMunayGas purchased a 75% stake in The Rompetrol Group NV in 2007, and acquired the management control of the group in 2009 after the purchase of the remaining 25%. None of the actions or inactions that might entail the responsibility of the former shareholders or management of The Rompetrol Group could or should be attributed to or associated with management and employees running after 2009 the operations of The Rompetrol Group (currently named KMG International).
KMG International is a subsidiary of KazMunayGas, Kazakhstan State-owned National Oil and Gas Company. Under KazMunayGas ownership and leadership, KMG International is acting in full compliance with high business ethics and with all the laws of Romania, the country where a vast part of our assets are located and operations are run.
We are proud and pleased to remind the Romanian public that KazMunayGas has already proved its commitment to develop Romania as an energy hub for Black Sea region, as a strategic connection between Kazakhstan national resources and European Union, by investments amounting to approximately US Dollars 4 billion we made since 2007 in operations run by more than 5,000 Romanian employees, while the group has paid during the same period more than US Dollars 12 billion to Romanian State budget.
KazMunayGas International has also committed to the Romanian Government the development of a Kazakh-Romanian Investment Fund with a capital contribution of 150 million US dollars for a total assets target of up to 1 billion US dollars, depending on the market condition. KazMunayGas International is waiting for Romanian Government progress to officially establish the Fund holding company, while more than 300 million US dollars-worth of projects have already identified and ready for transfer to and development by the Fund.
Against this background, the performance and solid reputation of KMG International group is the result of almost a decade of hard work and commitment of the current shareholders and management team. Therefore, we expect that in the future, high-rank public officials would be able to delineate and more accurately define the scope of investigations regarding events pre dating KMG' presence in Romania. Thus, the public opinion would be correctly informed and ambiguities with potential disparaging effect would be avoided.
Communication and Public Relations Department
KMG International