Delisting time's up, penalties follow

Early December was the deadline allowed for shareholders owning over 90% in a company listed on the capital market a year ago to conclude a public offer and delist their companies. The deadline to finalise the offers has expired and the list of ongoing delisting offers on the Bucharest Stock Exchange or RASDAQ and of preliminary announcements is several pages long. The brokers are complaining they no longer have time for the transactions on the market because they are “overwhelmed” by shareholders looking to put out offers, some of which worth only several hundred million ROL. Other shareholders that own more than 90% have not even run a preliminary ad for such an offer. One of the companies in this situation is sweets maker Excelent Bucharest. The company is held 95.3% by investment fund Axis Investments Ltd. The market value of the company is $16 million. The National Securities Commission (CNVM) has already sent written warnings to the shareholders of the companies that put out tender offers but did not finalise them until early December. CNVM’s spokesman Ciprian Ene said penalties were also in order for the shareholders of the companies that did not even put out an offer. ZF