Because court battles harm both sides,  Stoica wants to drop the lawsuits against SIF Transilvania

Head of the Executive Board of Cocor Turism Neptun, Daniel Stoica, said that he wants to drop the lawsuits against SIF Transilvania, as the FIC has now become a shareholder of Cocor Bucureşti.

Stoica has challenged the share capital increase decided by Shareholder"s Meeting of the FIC in 2007.

Stoica said that "On principle, Cocor Turism and Cocor Bucureşti are willing to drop all their ongoing lawsuits against SIF Transilvania, including my own lawsuit against the share capital increase operated by the FIC". "We have come to the conclusion that there is no point in battling in court, because now that the FIC has become a shareholder of Cocor Bucureşti these lawsuits would be nothing more than a waste of money both for us and for SIF Transilvania". In the last five years, SIF Transilvania filed almost 15 lawsuits challenging all the decisions of the shareholders of Cocor Turism, whereas Cocor filed several lawsuits challenging the share capital increase operated by SIF Transilvania. Eventually, once the FIC became a shareholder of Cocor Bucureşti we came to the conclusion that we have common interests and there is no point in fighting in court any longer", Stoica said.

• Lawsuits since 2007

In April 2007, the shareholders of SIF Transilvania approved the increase of the company"s share capital, from 54.6 million lei to 109.2 million lei, by capitalizing on the company"s 2006 profit. However, both Cocor Bucureşti as well as Stoica challenged the decisions of the FIC"s board of shareholders in court.

In May 2008, the High Court of Cassation and Justice ruled in favor of SIF Transilvania in the lawsuit filed by Cocor against the former, in which Cocor challenged the share capital increase operated by the FIC. The lawsuits filed by Stoica are still on going. Following the ruling of the court, the Romanian Securities Commission (CNVM) allowed trading of the free shares issued by the FIC as part of the share capital increase, which had been blocked as a result of the lawsuit.

SIF Transilvania became a shareholder of Cocor Bucureşti on June 23rd, when it bought an 8.87% stake in Cocor from SIF Muntenia (SIF4), for which it paid 9.5 million lei. SIF Transilvania later increased its stake to 10.25%.

Daniel Stoica said a decision on the method for settling the litigation with SIF Transilvania will be made on August 3rd, during the shareholder meeting of Cocor Bucureşti. "We don"t know how these lawsuits will be settled, but we as well as SIF Transilvania we will look for the legal solutions. We have discussed this approach with the managers of the SIF Transilvania and they agreed", the quoted source said.

Also in August, the shareholders of Cocor Bucharest will review the exit of SIF Transilvania from Cocor Turism. SIF Transilvania holds a 26.6% stake in Cocor Turism.

• Share exchange also suggested

In February 2008, Cocor Bucharest tried to come to an agreement with SIF Transilvania, by suggesting the FIC exchange the minority stake it holds in Cocor Turism for shares held by Cocor Bucharest in Euxin Constanţa, which the FIC had a majority stake in. The two parties failed to reach an agreement, because SIF Transilvania refused to include a plot of land in Constanţa in the share capital of Euxin.

Floriean Firu, vice-president of SIF Transilvania, said that the FIC is willing to settle the lawsuits. "An amicable and concrete settlement of these lawsuits is desirable. SIF Transilvania never opposed any proposal to settle these litigations. We will review Cocor"s proposal and we will see what comes next", the vicepresident of the FIC said.