Banca Transilvania becomes a shareholder of SSIF Broker

Banca Transilvania (TLV) will become a shareholder of brokerage firm SSIF Broker (BRK) after, it obtained 23.4 million shares of the company on May 8th, representing 6.9091% of the share capital of the latter, according to a report sent yesterday to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE).

On January 26th, Banca Transilvania asked the BSE to conduct on the POFSV market (special operations) the sale by special order of 23.4 million shares of BRK belonging to Ioan Gheorghe Carţis, whom it was foreclosing on.

Ioan Carţiş owned 8.25% of the shares of SSIF Broker, being the second largest shareholder of the company. Following the transfer of ownership, his stake would be just 1.34%.

In September 2008, Carţiş took out a loan from Banca Transilvania for which he used 15.5 million shares of BRK as collateral, as well as the money in an account existing with the bank, among other things, according to data from the Electronic Pledge Archive.

Calculated at the stock market price on the date the shares were transferred to Banca Transilvania, the block of shares was valued at 2.3 million lei (536,000 Euros), and based on the latest stock market quotation, its value was 2.1 million lei (484,000 Euros).

In Q1 2012, SSIF Broker, the only brokerage firm listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, had a profit of 4,251,779 lei, up 86% YOY. The turnover fell 10.7%, also due to the decrease in the average trading commissions as well as due to the 2.8% drop in the turnover the trades conducted by its customers through SSIF Broker on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, compared to the same period of last year.

SIF Muntenia is the largest shareholder of SSIF Broker, with a holding of 12.53%. Another important shareholder is transport firm "Intervalco" Baia Mare, which holds 5.21%.

During yesterday's trading session, shares of SSIF Broker rose 8.93%, to 0.1 lei/share.