REPLIES: LET'S BE SERIOUS Anghel, through Botez

I am trying to remain serious, despite the fact that I am about to burst into laughter, even though I respect Mrs. Ileana Botez (we go back quite a bit).

What does "There is a clear separation between the entities of BCR, ..." mean -?

How would she know?!

Does she work for BCR?

I've checked the signature twice to make sure that the letter came from the Stock Exchange, rather than from BCR.

How would the Communication Director of the Stock Exchange know how the BCR Group is organized?!

The communications director of BCR could speak about the "very clear separation between the entities of BCR", but not the one from the BSE.

On the contrary, the communications director of the BSE can only speak about the acting in concert of BCR (as a member of the underwriting consortium of the Romgaz IPO), BCR Pensii (BCR holds 99.99%) and the market operator called the Bucharest Stock Exchange, whose chairman - who is none other than Lucian Anghel - is also the CEO of BCR Pensii (the private pension fund arm of BCR).

The law that defines this relationship as "acting in concert" is precisely the law 297/2004 concerning the stock market.

Since the law was published in the Official Gazette no. 571/29.06.2004, anybody can see that there is a legal definition for that type of situation, contrarily to the statements of Mrs. Ileana Botez.

I think that in Lucian Anghel's mind, things aren't as clear as Mrs. Botez claims they are.

Anghel was chief-economist and executive director of the strategy and research department of BCR, member on the Board of Directors of Erste Asset Management and BCR Asset Management and is now the president of BCR Pensii, so that the separation between them feels like more like communicating vessels.

The man only knows one thing- BCR.

And because of that, I suspect that whatever else it may be, to him, the BSE is also a part of BCR.

His exact statement, since the launch of the trading in Romgaz shares, on the Bucharest Stock Exchange was the following: "About a year ago, the average of the evaluations for the 15% stake in Romgaz was approximately 250 million Euros".

He said that, to later make a statement that the amount of 390 million Euros, which is what that stake in Romgaz was sold for, represents a profit of 140 million Euros.

The problem: if you do not stand behind the claim that it was worth 250 million, can you still pretend the price at which it was sold brings a profit of 140?

No.

No matter how smart Lucian Anghel may think he is, having Ileana Botez claim that he didn't say it just doesn't hold water! (God!, why do I have to deal with such infantile things?!)

OK, now let's make it short: I want to ask Lucian Anghel, just like I asked the spokesperson of the ASF Radu Soviani, to wear tags according to the role he is acting in - president of the BSE, or CEO of BCR Pensii?

I want to ask him to give us another e-mail address, than the one from BCR; I think it would be a bit closer to legality, for the president of the BSE to have an BSE e-mail address.

Should I explain it again?

There needs to be a very clear separation between the BSE and BCR.

And this finally managed to drive away my laughing mood.

I finally managed to get serious.