* Wojciech Zaremba, PCC SE: "We are looking for a way to cooperate with Carlson Private Equity"
After significantly raising their stake in "Oltchim" Râmnicu Vâlcea (OLT), taking it up to about 17% following their buying over the last few weeks, the Poles of PCC SE have announced that they have begun talks with the representatives of "Carlson Ventures", the other significant shareholder of the plant, as they are interested in finding a way of working together.
Wojciech Zaremba, the representative of PCC SE for Romania, diplomatically avoided mentioning what the cooperation between his company and investment fund "Carlson Private Equity" would consist of, saying only that acquiring the stake of the British was not the subject of the discussions concerning "Oltchim".
"Carlson Private Equity", which specializes in investments in distressed companies, has increased its stake in the plant to 14%, over the past few weeks. Stock market analysts feel that the fight between PCC SE and the British to acquire shares in OLT caused it to surge over 862% since the beginning of 2011. PCC SE and "Carlson Private Equity" currently hold about 31% of the shares of the plant. Stock market legislation states that shareholders of a company acting in concert are required to launch a tender offer when reaching the holding threshold of 33%. The officials of the two companies previously said that they were not acting in concert.
"We have begun talks with the people of Carlson Ventures to see their intentions when it comes to Oltchim", said Wojciech Zaremba, who added: "We have some time ago said that we are interested in cooperating with all the shareholders. Now we simply want to understand what the people of Carlson Ventures want. We will see what happens after that.
We haven"t considered the acquisition of the stake that Carlson has in Oltchim, this to