According to the Kurier newspaper on Saturday, Austria’s OMV is considering splitting into independent energy and chemicals businesses. The company’s board has yet to make a decision on the idea.
OMV is working on a new corporate strategy, which will be revealed in the first quarter of 2022, according to a company representative who declined to comment on the claim, which gave no sources for the information.
Kurier said a task team had been working on the project for four weeks and that it still needed to be discussed with Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala and Austria’s state-owned holding company OeBAG.
OMV posted better-than-expected third-quarter results on Friday, thanks in part to its chemicals and materials section, which has a 75 percent share in Borealis, whose previous CEO Alfred Stern is now the group’s CEO. The new strategy, according to Stern, will be centered on sustainability.
According to Kurier’s report, Borealis, together with three refineries and gas stations, will remain essential to the new OMV as “OMV Chemicals.”The company’s energy exploration and production businesses, as well as renewable energy projects, would be spun off and delisted. According to the article, OMV would sell a controlling interest to private equity firms.
According to the publication, OMV could raise 6 to 8 billion euros ($9.25 billion) in new capital to invest in petrochemicals in its energy division.
It was also mentioned that Johann Pleininger, the veteran CEO of OMV Exploration & Production, may lead the energy company.
According to the article, OMV may buy the remaining 25% of Borealis from Mubadala for 3 billion to 4 billion euros.
Both companies might be as big as OMV in five to six years. Kurier stated that jobs will be retained and that both headquarters would stay in Vienna.
