The shares of Oltchim Râmnicu-Vâlcea (OLT), the biggestpetrochemical facility in Romania, have been heavily traded byStock Exchange investors, which brought the shares' market value upby around 70% in just the past month and a half alone.
Whereas in mid-February an Oltchim share was traded on themarket for 0.2 lei, yesterday the price reached 0.338 lei withtransfers on the market amounting to 43,000 euros. The company iscurrently valued at 28.2 million euros, and last year posted over1.3 billion lei (310 million euros) in sales. Aerostar Bacău (ARS),which has a similar capitalisation, posted 158 million lei (37million euros) in sales in 2010.
"I think the market expects a major change to occur at Oltchimover the next few quarters, either a privatisation or a capitalincrease, because it cannot go on indefinitely as things currentlystand, amid massive losses from operations and from its financialactivity. Under the new arrangement sealed by Romania with the IMFemphasis is laid on resolving the problems of loss-makingstate-owned companies, with Oltchim being one of them," says AndreiRădulescu, analyst at brokerage Target Capital. The Stock Exchangerises have been fuelled by speculations as to the start of thecompany's privatisation process by the state, which is pressured bythe IMF to stop the massive losses recorded by some companies,among which Oltchim.
Oltchim has recorded losses of over 200 million lei (50 millioneuros) in each of the last three years after the Austrians atPetrom decided at the end of 2008 to close Arpechim, which was theonly source of raw material of the Vâlcea-based plant, and resultedin the company cutting production by over 65%.
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