Alro Slatina, a producer of primary aluminium, on Wednesday finalised a deal whereby it took over Alum Tulcea, an alumina producer, in an operation on the RASDAQ electronic stock exchange worth close to 7 million euros.
Alum was taken over at the end of last year by Piochet Consultants from the Balli group. Piochet is registered in the fiscal haven of Belize. Market information suggests the Russian businessman Vitali Matshisky, who also controls Alro, is behind Piochet. On Wednesday, Piochet sold its entire stake in Alum, accounting for almost 68% of the share capital.
According to data made available to the CNVM by Piochet, the company''s "single apparent shareholder" is Winbell Enterprises Limited, based on a custody contract, while the real and final beneficiary of the stock is Edward Chiger. Chiger is an Israeli citizen, born in Russia, and the manager of Ringas NV, a natural gas trader registered in the Netherlands. Matshisky, who owns Alro, controls the Rinko group.
Since the end of last year, when it took over Alum, Piochet lost 12.5% in RON of its investment value, at a time when most companies listed on the Romanian capital market saw their values go up. In euros, however, the value of the transferred stake is approximately the same. Piochet paid 6.4 RON per share to Balli and on Wednesday sold to Alro for 5.6 RON per share.
"The deal was sealed at the market price of the stock," says Marian Nastase, deputy Alro chairman. Following the transaction - which saw Piochet acquire the majority stake from Alum - Alro asked the Competition Council to authorise the takeover of Alum, and the Council sanctioned the deal.
Alro''s plan includes a merger and operational integration with Alum. "In the aluminium industry there exists a vertical integration tendency. Recently, major producers have also started to buy bauxite explorations. After we finalise our merger with Alro Alprom there will be a merger with Alum. We hope to finalise the mergers by the end of the year," says Marian Nastase. He added that the merger would be preceded by a takeover bid for the rest of the Alum stock, in line with capital market legislation.
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