Banca Romana pentru Dezvoltare (Romanian Development Bank - BRD) - SociAétAé GAénAérale, the second-largest bank on the Romanian market is in talks with the Privatisation Authority (APAPS) about a strategy to sell the residual 7.32% stake still held by the State in the bank. The strategy considers both private foreign investors and the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) for the sale of the stake.
APAPS has not made a decision yet, as it is still considering several possibilities. The final strategy is to be set by a Government decision. In case a private investment is preferred, BRD's privatisation committee might be re-established in order to negotiate the price with the interested investors.
"We have discussed with APAPS and decided for a mixture, that is attracting several major funds from London or from other markets for 1-2% of the shares left, and selling another 2% on the BSE with our help, under the best circumstances possible," Bogdan Baltazar, BRD-SocGen chairman said.
BRD-SocGen's market capitalisation amounts to some $775 million, so that the 7% residual stake still held by APAPS is worth approximately $56 million. It could therefore turn out too much for the Romanian stock market to absorb at one time.
APAPS has two weeks to devise a strategy for selling the residual stakes of the most important companies already listed on the Stock Exchange, BRD included. These stakes should be liquidated mainly by sale on the capital market in three months' time.
BRD split its 5,000 ROL par value shares into 1,000 ROL shares early this year. It then put together three 1,000 ROL shares to make a single share.
BRD shares resumed trading at 18,000 ROL - 20,000 ROL, and last traded for 18,900 ROL. Bogdan Baltazar does not rule out the possibility of bonus shares granted by BRD this year again, on account of the positive exchange rate gaps.
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