Austria's OMV AG announced an estimated $1.8 billion deal Friday to gain a controlling stake in Petrom, Romania's state-owned oil company

Austria's OMV AG announced an estimated $1.8 billion deal Friday to gain a controlling stake in Petrom, Romania's state-owned oil company. The exact amount OMV will spend to acquire the 51 percent stake in Petrom will hinge on how many minority shareholders agree to the deal. However, a government news release and company officials valued the transaction at about 1.5 billion euros($1.8 billion). Before the sale, the government owned 93 percent of Petrom, while the rest was floated on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. It was the biggest deal involving a state-owned company in Romania since the end of communism almost 15 years ago. Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said the sale demonstrated his government's commitment to economic reforms, a key issue for Romania, which aspires to membership in the European Union by 2007. Petrom had frequently been critized for being inefficient and bloated, and the government predicted the OMV deal would help improve productivity and business.