OUT OF THE MARKET, BUT STILL CLOSE TO IT Petru Prunea, advisor with a brokerage firm

After sitting it out for five months, but still more than four years away from being allowed to work again on the stock market, Petru Prunea has found a way to return to his playing field, but without attracting the attention of the National Securities Commission (CNVM).

In April 2009, CNVM blamed Petru Prunea was the one responsible for several irregularities in the operations of brokerage firm "Broker" Cluj and has given him a five-year ban from working on the capital market.

In spite of (all) this, the former chairman and general manager of "Broker"Cluj recently signed a consulting contract with "Nova Invest", a brokerage and financial services firm (SSIF) of Satu Mare.

"I have begun working as a consultant with the managers of Nova Invest a few days ago", said Petru Prunea for the BURSA newspaper. "In generally advise them on procedural matters. The project that took most of my time was negotiating a merger between Nova Invest and several smaller brokerage firms".

The former chairman of "Broker" Cluj says that the survival of these smaller brokerages depends first and foremost on additional capital injections and on the success of their merger.

"The shareholders have to accept the idea of having a smaller stake in the company, if they want it to grow. We are currently negotiating with four brokerages, we have our plans ready, it remains to be seen whether we can pull it through. The crisis has caused some brokerages to become more willing to accept this kind of proposals", Petru Prunea said.

In his opinion, "Nova Invest" requested his services due to his lengthy experience on the Romanian capital market, even though in April everyone was taking bets that his ten year career on the stock market was over.

"I am getting involved in the market, but in such a way that the Commission doesn"t have anything to say", Mr. Prunea said. "I think people at Nova Invest have realized that my lengthy experience in the market would be useful".

Up until recently, Petru Prunea was the only out of those that the National Securities Commission had sanctioned in April at "Broker" Cluj, most of the others had already returned to the company, on different positions.