Suspicions of use of inside information, prior to it being available to all investors, are looming over a trade by which "Fondul Proprietatea" (FP) decided to reduce its stake in "Oil Terminal" (OIL), about two weeks ago, from 10%, to 8.45%.
The trade occurred on June 9th, three days after the meeting of the Board of Directors of "Oil Terminal", which decided to summon the Extraordinary General Shareholder Meeting (AGEA). The most important item on the agenda was the increase of the company"s share capital, with a contribution in kind from the State, through the Ministry of the Economy, consisting of two plots of land, one of 254,261 sqm and one of 129,334 sqm, located in Constanța. The proposal is an important piece of news which could affect the investment strategy of the company"s private investors, as they would be forced to participate in the share capital increase with cash, or risk seeing their holdings diluted.
The increase of the state"s stake through the contribution of the two plots of land dilutes the other shareholders, meaning that selling ahead of the information being published gives the seller a concrete advantage.
Even though it was important, the information only became available to domestic investors on June 10th, when the notice to attend of the General Shareholder Meeting was published on the website of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, however, (on June 9th), the Proprietatea Fund decided to sell 9.02 million shares of OIL, at an average price of 0.3681 lei/share, according to the report posted on June 10th, on the website of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The sale seems to have been quite "inspired", coming after two days where the stock of OIL rose 15% a day.
In fact, on June 9th, the price of the shares of OIL reached the highest level since the beginning of the year (0.3685 lei/share). (At the time, the rise
