ON AVERAGE, The Rasdaq market loses eighteen companies a month

• Most of them are forced to enter liquidation or to become Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

One hundred and sixty four companies got delisted from the Rasdaq tier in the first nine months of the year, whereas on the Bucharest Stock Exchange only three new issuers got listed (the BSE itself, "iFond Financial Romania", managed by SAI Intercapital Invest, and OTP Green Energy, managed by OTP Asset Management). For comparison, last year 202 companies got delisted from the Rasdaq, fewer than in 2008, when 269 exited the stock market, according to data from the National Securities Commission (CNVM).

The Rasdaq currently has 1,367 companies out of the nearly 6,000 that were initially listed in 1996, and their number is shrinking from one day to the next, as the bulletins of the Romanian National Securities Commission are teeming with such announcements.

According to data from the Romanian National Securities Commission, the main reason for the hemorrhaging of companies from the Rasdaq is the fact that their share capital dropped below the legally required limits, which in many cases leads to the companies in question entering insolvency or filing for bankruptcy. This number is increased by the companies that decide to say "good bye to the stock market" for reasons which are their own.

"Article 10 of the law of companies provides that in the case of a joint stock company, its share capital must not fall below 90,000 lei. The law also states that the Government may modify, every two years at the most, the minimum share capital requirements for joint stock companies, depending on the exchange rate for the leu, in order to have the share capital amount to the equivalent in lei of 25,000 Euros. When the share capital drops below the limit required by law, companies can opt to become LLCs, increase their capital or to dissolve", the officials of the Romanian National Securities Commission said.

Out of the 164 companies that got delisted from the "Rasdaq" this year, 122 did so "involuntarily", after going bankrupt or becoming "limited liability companies". The real cause for concern however, are the 42 companies that got delisted by the decision of their shareholders, issuers which will no longer be available to the stock market and to investors, even though brokers and institutional investors constantly complain that they don"t have enough stocks to trade.

In 2008, 66 issuers decided to get delisted through the decision of their shareholders, even though they met the requirements for being listed. In 2009 the number of companies delisted by their shareholders dropped to 52.

"An increasing number of companies are getting delisted in this period, because stock prices are very low, and the assets of the companies have dropped in value due to the economic crisis. It is a very auspicious period for majority shareholders that do not want to have their companies listed on the stock market, for various reasons, either because they do not want to have to abide by the transparency requirements, or because they"ve had enough of being harassed by minority shareholders", market sources, who did not want to be named, said.

The Rasdaq tier (Romanian Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System) was created in the autumn of 1996, to allow the trading of the shares issued to the population as part of the Mass Privatization Program, initiated by Mircea Coşea. The Rasdaq market was developed with American know-how and was based on the model of the American Nasdaq market.