In March 2020, Austria-headquartered integrated oil and gas company OMV announced a disposal program of 2 billion euro until the end of 2021.
Last year, the company made great progress and was able to sign agreements for the three assets of the first divestment package: the sale of the 51 per cent stake in the gas logistics subsidiary Gas Connect Austria, the sale of the OMV filling station business in Germany and the sale of the Upstream business in Kazakhstan.
The closing of all three divestments is expected in 2021 – subject to the required regulatory approvals. In total, the first package will lead to a substantial deleveraging effect of more than one billion euros.
Now OMV has announced a second package with two divestments, which will affect Central and Eastern Europe as well.
“We are well on our way to deliver on our decisive disposal program and with this second divestment package OMV is taking another big step towards fulfilling our promise to deleverage quickly”, said Rainer Seele, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of OMV.
First, the divestment of OMV’s business in Slovenia, where OMV currently operates 120 filling stations under the OMV, Eurotruck, Avanti and Diskont brands. With its limited integration within the Downstream oil value chain, the divestment of this business represents a further step in OMV’s portfolio optimisation.
Secondly, OMV’s subsidiary Borealis has decided to start a process of divesting its nitrogen business unit including fertiliser, technical nitrogen and melamine products. On the contrary, Borealis will continue to focus on its core activities of providing innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins and base chemicals, thus extending OMV’s value chain towards higher-value chemical products and the transformation towards a circular economy.
The company will announce the third package of divestments later this year. With the disposal program, OMV intends to reduce its gearing ratio excluding leases to around 30 per cent by the end of 2021.
