Exclusive: Ioan Niculae becomes the majority shareholder in the former Romanian Tobacco State Company again

Businessman Ioan Niculae once again became the majority shareholder of the former "Romanian Tobacco" National Company (SNTR), five years and a half after the company"s privatization.

Shareholders of "Galaxy Tobacco" (the current name of the SNTR) on Monday approved a USD 40 million share capital increase, exclusively through a cash contribution by "InterAgro" (controlled by Ioan Niculae), under the obligations undertaken through the privatization contract of 2001.

The decision of the shareholders of the former SNTR was revealed at the end of last week, after being published in the Official Gazette.

Following this operation, "InterAgro" diluted the Italian shareholders of CTS, which acquired the majority stake from the Romanian state in January 2004.

Ioan Niculae yesterday confirmed for BURSA the change in the shareholder structure of the former SNTR: "Through a decree enacted in 2005, I was required to invest 40 million dollars in . I later signed a convention by which I agreed to have make this investment as long as the state would acknowledge I paid that amount".

The businessman also said that the money was transferred by bank payment order: "We have an audit report that confirms the investment was made, as well as an investigation by AVAS (Authority for State Assets Recovery) which confirms "s investment".

As a result the company controlled by Ioan Niculae now controls 53.7% of "Galaxy Tobacco", after owning less than 1% in the beginning of the year. The remainder of the shares are owned by CTS Tobacco Limited (24%), company incorporated in the Virgin Islands and CTS Italia, with 21.6%.

However, Ioan Niculae does not rule out selling his majority stake: "I will probably sell my shares to the former majority shareholder, but for no less than the amount I have invested in the company".

The CTS -Galaxy consortium acquired the majority stake in January 2004, from AVAS (the Authority For State Assets Recovery), after the state had become the majority shareholder again by contributing several tracts of land to the company. At the time, our newspaper revealed that the plot of land by which AVAS had once again become a majority shareholder actually belonged to a company in which Ioan Niculae was a majority shareholder.