Romania’s SSIF Broker May Cut Shr Cap By RON72.2M, To Cover ’08 Loss

"The Board of Directors envisages the possibility to diminish the company’s share capital by the amount similar to the booked provisions, by lowering the shares' face value and keeping the current number of shares," the company said in a statement.

SSIF Broker registered RON70.6 million losses in 2008, after booking provisions worth RON72.4 million, on lower market value of the shares it owns.

Prior to announcing it booked provisions, SSIF Broker had reported a preliminary net profit of RON1.3 million in 2008, due to operating losses.

SSIF Broker also said Wednesday the request of the company’s 39 stockholders on repealing the Board could not be included on the agenda of April 10 stockholders’ meeting, on having been submitted too late. The investors could reschedule the issue.

SSIF Broker has a share capital of RON144.7 million, divided into 289.4 million shares with a face value of RON0.5 each.

According to the company’s data, Ioan Cartis owns an 8.22% stake in SSIF Broker, followed by constructions company Intervalco, with a 6.18% stake, and SSIF Broker president, Petru Prunea, with a 3.5% stake in the company.

Prunea was replaced late last week with Anton Ionescu, who in turn holds a 4.16% in the company.

SSIF Broker shares were suspended form trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the first hour of Wednesday trading. After the company’s announcement on the share capital diminishing, SSIF Broker shares plunged 7.7%.

But the shares subsequently gained significant ground and were traded at RON0.132 a unit, up 12.82% on the day, at about 0900 GMT