* The Ministry of Finance claims that determining the fair price for the shares of Rompetrol would be impossible without the stock market setting a price for them
* Florin Ilie, ING: "The price that RRC shares are currently trading at does not reflect the company"s fair value"
Brokers were expecting "Rompetrol Rafinare" to be delisted from the Bucharest Stock Exchange, after the Kazakhs of KazMunayGaz, had acquired 98% of the company, but the Romanian authorities have other plans.
An ordinance of the Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM), released Wednesday evening, reveals the position of the Ministry of Finance on the intention of the Rompetrol Group to remove "Rompetrol Rafinare" from the Stock Exchange.
The Ministry of Finance opposes the delisting of "Rompetrol Rafinare", and considers that removing the shares of RRC from trading prejudices the interests of the Romanian state, arguing that without a regulated market to provide a quote for the shares, the evaluation of their fair value would be impossible to evaluate.
Furthermore, the officials of the Ministry of Finance argue that the delisting of "Rompetrol" would hurt the rights of the Romanian state as bondholder and future shareholder of the company.
"Rompetrol Rafinare" currently has a free-float of just 290 million shares, which represent 1.37% of the company"s share capital.
In the last three months, since the conclusion of the takeover offer made by the Rompetrol Group, around 15.5 million shares of RRC were traded on the exchange. The low liquidity of these shares raises doubts about the price determined by trading is relevant when it comes to determining the true value of the company, which is precisely one of the arguments invoked by the Ministry of Finance.
"The price that Rompetrol shares are currently trading at is not does not reflect the
