ONE INVESTOR HAS SUBSCRIBED 1.36% OF ROMGAZ ON THE SMALL TIER The ASF begins auditing brokerage firms

The ASF has surprised the brokerage firms, yesterday, by asking them to urgently present the amount of their equity and their trial balances.

Several voices are saying that the ASF wants to see whether brokerages have overexposed themselves in the Romgaz IPO, by guaranteeing subscriptions for their customers greater than the value of their own equity.

The "inopinate" audit is taking place as the small tranche in the offer of Romgaz is has been oversubscribed five times, as well due to a 38 million Euros order placed yesterday.

Cătălina Sava, Head of the Oversight Department at the ASF has told us that the decision of the ASF to ask the brokerage firms to present within 24 hours the amount of their equity and the trial balances is based on a different oversight philosophy , which includes a proactive component.

Cătălina Sava told us: "The head of oversight makes decisions concerning the manner of evaluation of the information and analyses they receive. I've been in this job for three months now and I have a certain vision, I am trying to change some things, to impose some standards, and it is with that in mind that the decision you are referring to should be judged".

Even though the ASF official is not mentioning any connection to Romgaz, it should not be overlooked that this proactive measure of the ASF comes after an investor placed an order of 168.3 million lei (38 million Euros) on the retail tier of the Romgaz IPO.

The investor wants to buy 5.26 million shares, or 1.36% of Romgaz.

By last night, the small tier (15% of the IPO) had been oversubscribed 5.4 times, according to brokers, with cumulated orders of 1.5 billion lei.

• Dăianu: "The Romgaz IPO has exceeded any expectations"

The high interest from investors in the shares of Romgaz show the fact that people do save in Romania, Daniel Dăianu, first-vice-president of the Romanian Financial Oversight Authority (ASF), said yesterday. "The oversubscriptions in the Romgaz IPO are a slap for people who claimed that the domestic market has no potential", said Dăianu, quoted by Agerpres. He went on to say: "This should cause us to think for our future IPOs. This proves that people do save in Romania".

In the summer, the Romanian authorities decided that the Romgaz IPO would be offered on the London Stock Exchange, through Global Depository Receipts (GDR), claiming that the domestic market does not have enough money for the IPO. At the time, the authorities were estimating that a maximum of 600 million Euros would be raised for 15% of the company, but the Government will now settle with at least 311 million Euros.

The government wants to sell 15% of the shares of Romgaz at prices between 24 and 32 lei per share, and it expects to make somewhere between 1.38 billion lei (311.7 million Euros) and 1.85 billion lei (415.6 million Euros), of the IPO which is scheduled to end today.

The state will sell shares in Romgaz through the Bucharest Stock Exchange and through Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) on the London Stock Exchange.