The former chairman of Banca Transilvania, Iosif Pop, a shareholder in Romexterra, a bank whose takeover by Hungary's MKB bank is in progress, maintains the price bid to Romexterra shareholders in the takeover deal is low compared with the real value of the bank.
He joined a group of initiative including several tens of shareholders whose interests put together exceed 10% in Romexterra and who are not satisfied with the price offered by a company of Cyprus that is supposed to subsequently transfer the stock to MKB Hungarian bank.
The group is considering entering direct talks with Hungary's MKB on the takeover bid for Romexterra and also convening the General Meeting of Shareholders to make the bank management account for the way negotiations for the sale of the bank were carried out.
Though they are not committed legally by agreeing to join the group, the members say they will not sell their stock at the current offering price.
"This is a common ground of the members of the group, their intention of not selling at this price, but this is only a moral obligation. An alternative for us would be to enter talks with the Hungarian bank. At the same time, the group could express its intention to convene the General Meeting of Shareholders to demand explanations from the representatives of the bank about the way the sale of the bank was negotiated and the reasons why the deal is carried out through Cyprus," Iosif Pop told ZF.
He was unwilling to specify the number of shares he owns, but stated he was among the top 200 shareholders in Romexterra.
Hungary's MKB bank, owned in its turn by Germany's BayernLB, signed an in-principle agreement to take over Romexterra.
The Romanian bank does not have a majority shareholder, with its shares being owned by more than 100,000 shareholders, mainly employees in the petroleum and gas industry.
Thus, in the takeover operation, the bank's shareholders received offers to buy the stock at a price of 6 RON/share, though not from MKB, but from Demera Investments, a company registered in Cyprus, whose shareholders are not known. Romexterra representatives maintain Demera is a consultancy, being the "arranger of the deal".
However, some of Romexterra shareholders suspect MKB is going to take over the stock from Demera at a higher price, which would mean a substantial profit for the company registered in Cyprus.
The bid by the company from Cyprus could fail given that the transfer of stock is conditioned on the collection of sale commitments accounting for at least 50% plus one share in Romexterra capital.
The bid is valid until September 23rd and can be extended, according to stock sale contracts proposed to shareholders.
Pop said that as far as he knew, the group of initiative he was part of was composed of Romexterra shareholders that own 10% in the bank's capital.
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