The market value of vacuum cleaner manufacturer Electroargeş Curtea de Argeş (ELGS) has fallen three-fold on the Stock Exchange since the end of October last year, when businessman Cătălin Chelu became a shareholder.

The share decline came after Chelu failed to launch a mandatory takeover bid, decided not to distribute dividends from the 2010 profit and last week summoned a General Meeting to approve an increase of the share capital.

At the end of October 2010, two companies controlled by Cătălin Chelu, Portavon and Materra Com, both registered in Galaţi, bought stakes amounting to 29.6% and 5.8% respectively in Electroargeş, with around 13 million lei, which valued the company at around 37 million lei (8.8 million euros).

Shortly after the transactions, ELGS shares were transferred from the RASDAQ to the second tier of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), and fell significantly after trading was resumed.

The decline of Electroargeş stock deepened in March, after the businessman decided not to distribute dividends, although the company's management had already published the notice to attend the GM on the stock exchange, which provided for the distribution of a gross dividend of 0.1191 lei/share. The notice was modified and Electroargeş shares plummeted on the Stock Exchange, losing 30% of their value in a few days' time.

Last week, Chelu asked the Electroargeş management to convene a GM to discuss increasing the share capital by around 5.7 million lei, through a cash contribution. After the notice to attend was published on the Stock Exchange, shares lost a further 25% of their value.

So, at the price of 0.459 lei/share at the end of last week, the vacuum cleaner manufacturer is now worth just 13.1 million lei (3.2 million euros) on the Stock Exchange. Last year it reported a 7.6 million-lei (1.8 million-euro) net profit, and a 104.6