Government officials rush to buy Dracula Park shares

Dracula Park project has marked a first in financing: the state is no longer making contributions from the budget, but through its ministers, who yesterday emptied their pockets in order to be the first investors buying Dracula shares. Patriotism has been privatised.

The sale of shares was off to a good start yesterday, as many people queued up at the offices of Banca Comerciala Romana (Romanian Commercial Bank – BCR).

Although Tourism minister Dan Matei Agathon has repeatedly said that the Government will not fund this project, the first investors were precisely Government members, but they bought shares on their behalf.

While the Tourism minister was somehow more modest and invested only his November salary in the purchase of 1,500 shares (worth over 15 million ROL), the Premier invested his salary on several months.

According to Dan Matei Agathon, Adrian Nastase bought 10,000 shares for 10,200 ROL/share, with the stake estimated at 102 million ROL.

Nicolae Danila, the president of BCR (the bank managing the subscription), also wanted to be among the first buyers, acquiring shares worth ten million ROL, but says “there’s still time to buy more.”

On the other hand, according to the bank’s development strategy, which stipulates that BCR will give up its stakes and will no longer acquire shares, the institution will not become a shareholder of “Fondul pentru Dezvoltare Turistica Sighisoara” (“Sighisoara Tourism Development Fund” – FDTS), the company established for building and managing Dracula Park.

Many of the Tourism Ministry employees followed lead and bought shares, according to their “own personal budgets.”

The share issue launched by “Fondul pentru Dezvoltare Turistica Sighisoara” is worth 155 billion ROL (more than five million dollars). According to project coordinator Marius Stoian, almost 26,000 shares were sold during the first two hours and their value exceeds 262 million ROL.

The first shares were bought simultaneously by an investor in Botosani and another one in Timisoara, only five minutes after the public offer was launched.

All seems to point that investors do trust the Dracula Park project.

According to the feasibility study, the park will attract over one million visitors annually, which should allow officials to reap operational revenues of 27 million dollars, of which 12.5 million dollars will go to “Fondul pentru Dezvoltare Turistica Sighisoara.” The company would derive net profit of 2.84 million dollars.