* The secondary public offering for 21% of Alro, postponed

* The prospectus for the sale of 9.8% of "Petrom" nearing completion

Vimetco, the majority shareholder of Alro Slatina, has postponed the Secondary Public Offer to sell 21 million shares of Alro Slatina (ALR) for approximately 133 million Euros on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). This means that the Exchange now relies only on the Romanian state, which wants to sell 9.8% of "Petrom" for things to heat up this summer, in an anemic market.

Rumors concerning the postponing of the offer of "Alro" Slatina (ALR) were confirmed, on Friday, by the company"s officials, who cited "adverse market conditions" as the reasons behind the decision, without providing additional explanations.

"Vimetco (ed. note: the majority shareholder) believes it is not in the best interests of Alro or its shareholders to proceed with an SPO at this point in time", according to a press release sent to the Bucharest Stock Exchange and to the London Stock Exchanges, where the global depositary receipts of "Vimetco" are traded.

However, the offering of "Petrom" (SNP) will proceed as planned.

Apparently, investors that wish to subscribe shares of "Petrom" sold by the state will need to have their cash ready for July 11th, but this deadline, as well as the rest of the details, will be submitted for approval in a government meeting.

Sources that did not wish for their names to be disclosed, said: "The offering of Petrom will be launched between July 11th -July 13th and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

The prospectus for the offering is set to be submitted on Monday (ed. note: today) or on Tuesday to the Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM), and on Wednesday it will be discussed in the government meeting, provided everything remains on schedule.

There will be