LIQUIDATION VERSUS DEVELOPMENT The shareholders decide the fate of Sibex

To be or not to be (anymore), that is the question for the shareholders of Sibex, who have scheduled it for today to elect a new management, after the former CEO Cristian Sima, who some people no longer wanted as CEO anyway, was banned from the stock market.

It would seem there will be two factions squaring off, one rallied around SIF Moldova and its candidate Valentin Ionescu, and another around Bogdan Baloşan (who owns 5% of Sibex), together with Dan Simionescu of SIF3 Transilvania.

Valentin Ionescu has said that he supports the idea of developing the Sibiu Exchange, whereas some sources in the market claim that the second faction is leaning more towards a controlled liquidation of the group.

It would appear, however, that, by Friday, none of the factions had succeeded in gaining a solid majority, which means that the negotiations will continue until the last minute.

For Sunday night, the shareholders of Sibex had scheduled a "cocktail", to establish the final details concerning the vote.

By Friday, some of the shareholders had still not been swayed by either of the two factions, for various reasons. Either they did not believe in the plans of the candidates for the company, or they knew nothing about those candidates, as some of them were coming from the business and banking sector.

Another important shareholder, SIF4 Muntenia, which holds a 5% stake in Sibex, expressed its support for Valentin Ionescu and Grigore Chiş, the CEO of SSIF Broker, through Gabriel Filimon, CEO of SAI Muntenia.

SSIF Broker is seen as siding with the same faction, and some sources include here businesspeople Radu Dimofte and Adrian Bejenaru.

In September, the latter two held 8.25% of Sibex and were declared as acting in concert by the Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM), and their votes were limited to 5% of the share capital. At the time, the two businesspeople filed an appeal with the CNVM, but some sources claim that it has been rejected, meaning that the restriction will remain in effect in today's General Shareholder Meeting.

A similar measure had been applied by the CNVM for a group of shareholders rallied around brokerage firm WBS Romania, which had a cumulated stake of 16% of the share capital.

Some shareholders want to see a concrete plan of action from the new Board of Directors, in order to make Sibex profitable, which would potentially include "penalties" for failing to meet the targets.

Others only want to make up their losses they have incurred as clients of Cristian Sima and see the liquidation of the exchange as a solution for that issue.

There is another rumor that this solution does not sit well with SIF Moldova, which would prefer it if the shareholders did not get any cash, as they could use it to acquire the SIF.

However, the vote is secret, meaning that even shareholders who are certain to be known as siding with a specific faction could change allegiances, depending on the latest negotiations.