Public takeover bid for Perla Covasnei fails

The public takeover bid for Perla Covasnei Sfântu Gheorghe launched by majority shareholder Violeta Moraru failed, as no shareholder was willing to sell their shares at the price of 1 leu/share. Violeta Moraru, together with the company she controls - Azuga Waters - and a member of the Board of Directors of Perla Covasnei, Rotaru Adrian, own almost 52.6% of the shares of the mineral water producer. Moraru wanted to acquire 3.8 million shares of Perla Covasnei, at a price of 3.8 million lei.

The price of the public takeover bid was equal to the one proposed by Moraru and the two individuals she was working in concert with bought stock in Perla Covasnei between August - December 2009.

In the prospectus, Moraru said this operation was not intended to delist Perla Covasnei, but she said that if she succeeded in acquiring more than 95% of the shares of the company in Sfântu Gheorghe, she may ask the other shareholders to sell their stock.

Perla Covasnei has a share capital of 817.000 de lei, divided into 8.1 million shares, with a face value of 0.1 lei. Other shareholders of Perla Covasnei are Bere Azuga, which owns 20.18% of the shares. The Violeta and Valeriu Moraru spouses last year sold Bere Azuga to Ursus Breweries, parte of the American-South-African group SABMiller.

Last month, the shareholders of Perla Covasnei unanimously approved the extension of the 1,200,000 lei revolving credit line, over a 12 month period, taken from EximBank, the use of the buildings as collateral for the line of credit, as well as the pledging of the accounts opened with Eximbank, without dispossession. The company"s shareholders have also approved the extension of the 1 million lei credit line for a period of 12 months from the expiration date.

In the beginning of this year, Violeta Moraru announced she would continue to expand the Perla Covasnei brand, and to make it beat the growth rate of its market. This year, the company"s investments will be directed towards expanding the distribution of the Perla Covasnei brand. The company last year completed investments worth almost 2.5 million Euros in order to boost its manufacturing capacity. In the coming years, Moraru expects the market share of the Perla Covasnei brand to increase from 2% to 8%. The company"s managers said that last year the company"s turnover increased 20%, exceeding 20 million lei.