Rolast shareholders on opposite sides

Last week’s management change at the synthetic rubber parts maker Rolast Pitesti has sent the main shareholders of the company, three investment funds, on opposite sides.
On the one hand, there are the Romanian Investment Fund (RIF) and Romanian Investment Company (RIC), which account for 54.07% of the company’s shares and which pushed for the replacement of the management team. On the other hand, there is the Romanian American Enterprise Fund (RAEF), which holds 31.37% in the company and favoured keeping the former general manager Constantin Divan.
The replacement of the management team was decided in a meeting of the Board of Directors last week, with three former Tofan Group managers appointed as replacements. The general manager position was assigned to Dumitru D. Popescu, former state secretary and head of the Restructuring Agency within the Romanian Government throughout 1994-1995. Popescu was already a member of Rolast’s Board, as he was representing RIC. Following differences between the two sides, Horia Manda, one of the two RAEF representatives in Rolast’s Board, quit.
RAEF representatives did not attend last week’s meeting when the change of the management team was decided, Dumitru Popescu says.
“They told us they couldn’t make it,” Popescu told Ziarul Financiar.
Rolast’s Board of Directors comprises six members, two for each investment fund.
“RAEF feels such major decisions (Manda and Divan’s resignations) are likely to make a significant impact on the financial situation of the company. This is why they had to be made only based on real, economic arguments and after a complex analysis of the risks involved and of the estimated benefits,” Mihai Catuneanu, RAEF’s only representative in Rolast’s Board said.
RAEF, RIC and RIF are among the most important investment funds on the Romanian market and jointly hold stakes in several listed companies, such as Terapia, Policolor, Rolast or, until recently, Imsat.