Aker Braila prepares for capital increase

Aker Braila shipyard”s Board of Directors will request the company”s shareholders to authorise all operations required for the increase of the share capital by contribution to investments in cash from the majority shareholder, Norway”s Aker Group, and worth 182.5bn ROL (more than 5 million euros), according to RASDAQ. The company did not specify whether the capital increase will be done by granting preference rights to the minority shareholders, which would allow them to subscribe directly proportional to their current stakes. If the operation is done by granting this right, then the share capital of Aker Braila will be upped by no more than 262.5bn ROL (7.1 million euros). The company officials were unavailable for comment. The shipyard”s main shareholder is the Aker Group, which owns 69.5%. The most important minority shareholder is SIF Moldova, 14.4%. Aker Braila”s share capital currently stands at more than 74.8bn ROL (over 2 million euros). The shipyard managed to become profitable last year after having posted losses for 2003 and 2002. Its profit in 2004 amounted to some 0.6 million euros, due to a significant raise in revenues, 44.7% compared with the previous year. It made 20.8 million euro turnover last year, down 11.1% from 2003. ZF