AFTER ROMANIAN SECURITIES COMMISSION STARTS ASKING QUESTIONS "Amonil" stock skyrockets on the BSE

• Ioan Niculae: We have concluded an agreement which will allow us to produce fertilizers by process gas at "Amonil"

Shares of fertilizer maker "Amonil" Slobozia (symbol: AMO) yesterday shone again, rising over 9.24%, on a volume of 7.66 million shares, after the National Securities Commission (CNVM) demanded that the two-offshore companies, "Zalois" and "Jovline", reveal their owners within 24 hours. The two companies together own more than 50% of "Amonil".

The decree of the market watchdog comes almost one year after Salink Limited, one of the minority shareholders of the plant, requested for the first time the clarification of the ties between the two off-shores, which are suspected of acting in concert, as they are both headquartered in the Belize islands.

However, at the end of last month, the sole shareholder of "Zalois", "Ernston Limited", was replaced by "Watterstan Holdings Limited", which provided CNVM with a good time to request the disclosure of the names of the shareholders of the two companies in the Belize Islands. If it can be proven that "Jovline" and "Zalois" are acting in concert, they would be required to make a public takeover offer.

• Interagro still mulling whether to extend the management contract with "Amonil"

After announcing last week that it would no longer be allowed to supply the fertilizer plant with natural gas due to an order of the Ministry of the Economy, "Interagro" recently concluded a gas processing agreement with "Amonil", meaning it would now be producing its own fertilizer in Slobozia.

Mr. Ioan Niculae, the president of the "Interagro" group, made the following statement for "BURSA": "We concluded an agreement with Amonil for gas processing. This means that we will supply the gas through the installations which are no longer owned by Amonil, we will pay them a fee for gas processing which would cover the wage and electricity expenses, but we will own the fertilizer produced".

In fact, the new contract concluded between "Interagro" and "Amonil" looks like a reiteration of an older arrangement between Amonil and "Intergaz" Zimnicea, by which Amonil had agreed that it would sell its fertilizer output to "Intergaz" at a price 5% higher than the production cost, in exchange for the gas supplied by "Intergaz". Salink Limited, the shareholder of Amonil, requested information about that contract between Amonil and Intergaz Zimnicea, from CNVM, alleging that Ioan Niculae was also behind "Intergaz".

"Amonil" lost its most valuable installations used in the production of fertilizer, after they were auctioned off in the beginning of last month, by a LLC from Slobozia, "Chemgas Holding Corporation", in order to pay off the 54 million lei gas bill which "Amonil" had accumulated to former "Distrigaz Sud" (the current GDF Suez Energy Romania). Chemgas Holding Corporation also acquired the assets which were auctioned off, for around 57 million lei.

"Amonil" is currently led by "Interagro", by means of a management contract set to expire at the end of 2009.

"We will decide around December 1st, whether we will extend this management contract next year or not", Mr. Ioan Niculae said. When asked about the decree by the CNVM requesting the disclosure of the shareholders behind the two offshore companies, Mr. Niculae said it was "a very good thing".