New Century Holdings, the company managing several investment funds in Romania, including Broadhurst, is waging a battle against the president of Cocor store, in order to take control over the firm.
Romarta Bucharest, a company owned by investment fund Broadhurst, launched a public offer aimed to purchase 29.4% of Cocor, for 500,000 ROL/share. If the offer is successful, namely if there are any shareholders willing to sell their stakes, the fund would come to own 49 percent of Cocor.
The value of the public offer amounts to 44.37 billion ROL (1.4 million dollars). The offer is managed by Active International.
Adrian Besliu, chairman of Cocor Board, says that the public offer should be suspended because Cocor is currently operating a share capital increase.
“The National Securities Commission (CNVM) cannot authorise any public offer without informing the respective company first. I have always authorised the public offers initiated by Broadhurst but, in this particular case, I think the share capital increase should be finalised first,” Adrian Besliu maintained.
According to Besliu, the General Assembly of Shareholders, which convened on November 28, decided to increase the share capital by 25 billion ROL, from 30 to 55 billion ROL. The increase will be performed by raising the nominal value of one Cocor share from 100,000 ROL to 185,000 ROL/share.
Gabriela Anghelache, chairman of the National Securities Commission, could not be contacted to confirm the statements.
“The ongoing share capital increase should not impede the development of the public offer as long as the company’s stock is not suspended from trading,” said Freddy Garbaci, an attorney for Broadhurst.
The main shareholder of Cocor is a group comprising four natural persons, who together own over 50% in the company’s stock.
Broadhurst holds 19.58% in Cocor shares, with 10.25% of shares directly owned. Cocor shares are a rarity on RASDAQ market, as they are usually traded only in large stakes under special transactions.
“There is a competition between me and Broadhurst for Cocor shares. However, there is no enmity between us and the competition takes place on the market, in compliance with the law,” said Adrian Besliu.
Cocor derived net profit of 31.3 billion ROL last year. The net dividend per share distributed by the company stood at 62,500 ROL/share, almost three dollars.
The company posted a good evolution this year as well, deriving net profit worth 25.85 billion ROL over the first nine months of the year (915,000 dollars), double as compared to the year-ago period.
The company’s turnover stood at 44.83 billion ROL between January-September 2001, up 71.9% as compared to the same period last year.