Do you remember "Predator" with Arnold Schwarzenegger?
A team of commandos in the Central American jungle is being hunted by an alien - a bug-like beast, taller than a man and equipped with weapons superior to those of the humans.
The insect wasn"t invisible.
It was just transparent.
It could be observed, because it distorted the vegetation when it passed.
Furthermore, leaves would still move, thus allowing its shape to become approximately visible.
This is kind of what is happening now with the Public Offering of "Petrom".
The capital market legislation is bending; the Code of the Bucharest Stock Exchange is being ignored; the Romanian National Securities Commission treats regulations like they were made out of putty; the Board of Directors of the Bucharest Stock Exchange turns its back.
In "Predator", those were the hints that the beast was passing.
Yesterday, the stock of "Petrom" was scheduled to see the introduction of nominee accounts on the market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE).
As a result, the beast will remain invisible, even after the Secondary Public Offering is over, because in the case of nominee accounts, the owners of the shares are unknown, and the registry of shareholder features the name of the brokers or of their custodians instead.
The CNVM has approved the switching of the stock of "Petrom" to nominee accounts, three days after the beginning of the Public Offering, changing the rules of the game mid-way, - a leaf crumpled as the beast passes.
Loud footsteps, breaking of withered branches: the maximum price mentioned in the prospectus (0.46 lei/share) is in fact the highest price that the stock traded at last year, on the BSE (April 8th, 2011).
But, in the annexes to the Prospectus, it is written that the price would have to be determined by combining three meth