Shares of Romanian aluminium producer Alro Slatina are likely to resume trading this week, most certainly by the end of the year, Stere Farmache, general manager of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) maintained.
Alro shares had been halted from trading at the end of August because of the lack of information regarding the company’s privatisation, which was supposed to be concluded by a share capital increase.
Although the Privatisation Authority, which holds 54.7% in Alro Slatina, last month officially announced that the sale of the controlling stake in the company would be carried through an international tender, BSE did not authorise trading to be resumed, invoking the lack of transparency.
All the details regarding privatisation are comprised in an appendix of the Government Decision that approved the privatisation strategy. The appendix is available only to the investors involved in the tender.
“We have attempted twice to persuade the APAPS (Privatisation Authority) to provide the BSE investors at least with the basic information. Unfortunately, our attempts were not successful,” the BSE director said.
“On the other hand, the company is not responsible for this situation, while the investors that bought Alro shares and now want to sell them should not be restrained,” Farmache said.
Stere Farmache states that the media has released information that, to some extent, allowed the investors to get an idea on the privatisation strategy.
According to some information having spread on the market lately, the strategy aims at a three-stage sale of the company.
In the first stage, the entire stake held by Alro (54.7%) will be put up for sale in a tender. If the sole bidder is trade company Marco International, which already holds 43% stake in Alro, the second stage will be applied.
In the second stage, APAPS will negotiate with Marco International, which will be allowed to buy only 10% in the company, while the state will continue to hold shares in the aluminium plant.
The company becoming the main shareholder will have to initiate and attend a share capital increase of 50 million dollars.
The last price level of Alro shares amounted to 14,300 ROL, while the shares have a face value of 25,000 ROL.
According to the Bucharest Stock Exchange regulations, a company that is halted from trading for more than 90 days may be delisted.
“Alro cannot possibly be delisted, as, first of all, the company is not responsible for the scarcity of information regarding privatisation,” Farmache concluded.
Alro privatisation advertisement, which is expected to provide more clarifications regarding the procedure to sell the stake held by the state, is scheduled to be released by this yearend.