State sells residual BRD stake

The Privatisation Authority (APAPS) will sell on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, in two stages, the remaining 7.3% stake in the Romanian Development Bank-Groupe Société Générale (BRD-GSG), estimated at more than $35m. APAPS will first put up for sale a small stake, to test the market, chairman Ovidiu Musetescu said. “The sale is likely to be a two-step-process, with the first being a ‘balloon stake’ to see how the stock market responds. The stake is to be sold by yearend,” Musetescu said. The sale of the remaining stake the Romanian State still holds in BRD had been rumoured for more than two years, but has not been initiated until now. ZF