Cocor gets ready to sell shares worth 8m euros

The board of directors of Cocor Bucharest, the operator of the shopping complex of the same name in central Bucharest, is to seek shareholder approval for the sale of shares in its portfolio worth some 8 million euros.

Besides rents from the commercial space owned by the company, Cocor has also made money from stock investments on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, in particular in SIFs.

At the end of the first quarter, the most important shares in Cocor”s portfolio were SIF Banat-Crisana, at 550,000 shares, SIF Transilvania, over 14.8 million shares, Semrom, nearly 150,000 shares, and Winmarkt Beta, 356,000.

The latest company reports put the value of the listed shares it currently holds at close to 26.3 million RON (7.54 million euros).

Cocor also owns interests in a number of companies: it has 69.8% in Comturist Bacau and over 87% in Cocor Turism in Neptun.

Cocor Bucharest plans to increase its stake in Cocor Turism by increasing the share capital of the Neptun-based company by 20 million RON (approximately 5.74 million euros). At present, Cocor Turism”s has a share capital of around 2 million RON (574,000 euros). Another important shareholder in the Neptun-based company is SIF Transilvania, with 11%.

The company posted losses of over 275,000 RON (75,000 euros) in the fist half of the year, against turnover of 1.16 million RON (317,000 euros), over 48% higher than in the corresponding period last year. The negative results, however, were much smaller than in the same time last year when Cocor posted over 1 million RON (320,000 euros) in losses.

The transactions Cocor is planning in order to restructure its capital will not exceed 8 million euros (27.9 million RON), according to the company report. Cocor officials could not be reached for comment on the planned transactions.

Another issue that will be debated at the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders scheduled for the second half of next month is the continuation of the investment in consolidating and modernising the Cocor complex. Cocor is also working on a revision of its spending and revenue budget for 2005.

Cocor made net profits of 5.4 million RON (1.5 million euros) in the first six months of the year, 2.5 times higher than for the same time last year.

stelian.vezentan@zf.ro