Romanian Securities Commission (CNVM) issues another 2,500 USD fine against a shareholder of Zimtub Zimnicea

The CNVM has issued again a USD 2,500 fine against the company Flamboyant Ventures of the Belize. The company, which is a shareholder of Zimtub Zimnicea, did not disclose its shareholders to the Commission, after making a similar decision in June.

The CNVM has also required the company to disclose within five working names the names of its individual shareholders. If the company does not comply, it will be again fined with an amount equal to 5% of its share capital.

Last month, the CNVM fined Flamboyant Ventures, again for USD 2,500, or 5% of its share capital. In 2009, the Commission had requested Flamboyant Ventures to disclose the names of its individual shareholders and to specify whether it was acting in concert with other shareholders of Zimtub, to determine whether it was required to make a public takeover bid for the steel tube maker.

The fine amounting to 5% of the company"s share capital represents the highest punishment that the CNVM can apply. Flamboyant Ventures owns 31.87% of Zimtub.

Flamboyant Ventures has acquired the shares it owns in Zimtub from Interagro, controlled by businessman Ioan Niculae, and from an individual investor which is suspected of acting in concert with Interagro. Flamboyant Ventures became a shareholder of Zimtub in April 2009, when it acquired 13.93% of the shares from Interagro. Following this trade, the stake of Interagro dropped from 37.12% to 23.19%, which allowed Interagro to lower its stake below the level at which it would have been required to make a public takeover bid.

Capital market legislation provides that if a shareholder, either directly, or through other with which it is acting in concert owns more than 33% of a listed company, is required to launch a public takeover bid for the outstanding shares.

Flamboyant Ventures also acquired in November last year another 17.94% of Zimtub from the company"s deputy managing director, Stelian Dragomir, reaching 31.87%. The CNVM alleges that Dragomir is acting in concert with Interagro and Intergaz in Zimtub. The Commission has asked the two companies to launch a takeover bid for the steel tube maker, because together they owned more than 33% of Zimtub. Since they did not comply, the CNVM fined Interagro three times and demanded that it make takeover bid again. The fines amounted to 54,600 lei.

The shareholders of Zimtub also include Inter Ferm Fântânele, of the county of Teleorman, which owns 25.87% of the company.