The secondary public offer for "Alro" uncertain for now

Rumors that the Russians of "Vimetco" are considering postponing or even canceling the secondary offer for the sale of 21% of "Alro" Slatina (ALR) were circulating yesterday, without being confirmed or denied by the officials of the aluminum maker or by the intermediaries of the sale, who were in turn waiting for a sign from the management of "Vimetco".

Before the closing of yesterday"s edition, the representatives of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, on which "Alro" is listed, had no information on a potential postponement of the sale of 20% of the company.

Contacted by BURSA, Valentin Ionescu, the managing director of the BSE, said: "I have talked to representatives of the group which intermediates the offer, Unicredit. We are waiting for the final schedule for the offer. We have no other information from them".

On May19th, "Vimetco", the majority shareholder of "Alro" Slatina, announced his intention to sell 20.96% of the shares of the aluminum maker, through a secondary public offer (SPO). Marian Năstase, the CFO of "Vimetco", said at the time that the funds raised from the sale of the block of shares would be used to finance the group"s projects, for working capital and for objectives set by the management of the company.

However, the press release posted on the website of the London Stock Exchange (where Vimetco is listed) states that "the final decision on the Secondary Public Offer will be made by Vimetco NV and will depend on several factors, including whether the Romanian National Securities Commission will approve the prospectus, market conditions and the securing of the necessary permits".

"Alro" has a stock market capitalization of 2.6 billion lei, according to the price of 3.8 lei/share recorded in yesterday"s trading session.

The company reported a net profit of more than 120.2 million lei, in Q1 2011, double compared to the net result of Q1 2010 (50.5 million lei).