ELECTIONS WITH ALL WEAPONS ON THE TABLE Sources: "The ASF has not found any concertations at SIF Oltenia"

The Financial Oversight Authority (ASF) has not identified any groups of shareholders acting in concert with holdings that exceed the 5% legal process, at SIF5 Oltenia, according to sources from the stock market, meaning that no limitations of the voting rights have been decided, prior to the elections for a new management, scheduled in today's General Shareholder Meeting.

SIF2 Moldova had not yet received any decision of acting in concert, by last night, until the closing of the edition.

Market voices claim that the Authority has been notified concerning possible acting in concert by shareholders, both in SIF5, and in SIF2.

Also, Dan Paul, the president of the Association of Brokers, issued a public challenge to Mircea Ursache, the vice-president of the ASF, last week, in a conference organized by "BURSA": "I am curious if the sanctions for acting in concert for the general shareholder meetings of the SIFs, will also include the Veranda group, without any connection to any mall in Bucharest. I am curious if that acting in concert sanction will happen. If not I will try to help you on that through official avenues".

In August 2015, SIF Moldova took over the role of SIF Oltenia in the project of the Veranda mall, developed by the Pogonaru family in the Obor area of Bucharest.

At the time, the management of SIF Moldova announced that its subsidiary - Real Estate Asset SA - acquired 6,555,211 shares of Prodplast Imobiliare (PPLI) which developed the Veranda mall, worth 39.9 million lei and 643,859 shares in Nord worth 4.8 million lei.

Dan Paul came as the result of the market rumors about a deal between Florin Pogonaru and the Banca Transilvania group, in the elections at SIF5.

The BT group has submitted the nomination of Radu Hanga, the former executive director of the Strategy Coordination Department of Banca Transilvania, who was until now a board member at SIF Moldova, in the fight for SIF5 Oltenia.

The candidates for SIF5 also include Ana Bobircă, nominated by investment fund Business Capital for Romania Opportunity Fund (BOF), controlled by Florin Pogonaru and Erste Bank.

According to some market sources, BT and Pogonaru also support Cristian Micu, board member at the BSE, and Ştefan Filip, of the EBRD, for the management of SIF5.

Another significant faction is the fight for SIF5 is Swiss Capital, which has on its list of candidates Sorin Apostol and Ioana-Valeria Avram, proposed by two shareholders.

Of the current Board of Directors, those who seek reelection include chairman Tudor Ciurezu, vice-president Anina Radu, Cristian Buşu (current chairman of Electrica), Nicolae Stoian and Carmen Popa.

Bogdan Iliescu, member on the boards of Electrica and Transgaz, also wants a seat on the Board of SIF5, as does Gabriel Creţu, of Adwisers Financial IFN, and Liviu Giugiumică, of Trident Capital Investments, one of the oldest brokers in the stock market. The shareholders of SIF Oltenia have also nominated Dorel Berceanu and Mircea Oancea.

At SIF Moldova, things are a little more complicated: only two candidates of the Swiss Capital gtoup (Robert Cosmin Pană and Olimpiu Blăjuţ) have challenged the positions of the five candidates of the current board (Horia Ciorcilă, Octavian Radu, Iancu Cătălin Jianu, vice-president Claudiu Doroş and chairman Costel Ceocea).

Mircea Ursache announced last week that the ASF would issue sanctions on acting in concert on the shareholders that have ties, prior to the general shareholder meetings scheduled at the SIFs, and the voting rights of the groups acting in concert will be capped at 5% - the legal holding limit. He said: "Regardless of what happens, as long as the current legislation exists (ed. note: the 5% holding cap in the SIFs), any relationship between shareholders, as innocent as it may seem, will be the object of acting in concert and the suspension of the voting rights".

The ASF official warned: "Our information (ed. note: of the ASF) has a high degree of accuracy".

President Klaus Iohannis passed, on March 20, the law on issuers of financial instruments and market operations, passed on February 28th, by the Chamber of Deputies, as part of an emergency procedure.

The new law contains a multitude of details tied to defining people acting in concert.

In the past, the National Securities Commission, the predecessor of ASF, had accustomed the market with decisions of sanctions for acting in concert, sometimes even between two separate dates of general shareholder meetings.

Now, several market players expected the elections to be held today on the first summoning, both in SIF2 and in SIF5, given the high stakes, especially in SIF5, where the battle is the 6% stake in the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR), that SIF5 has in its portfolio.