The Vimetco group, held by Russian businessman Vitaly Machitsky,intends to sell 21% of its shares in aluminum smelter Alro(ALR.RO)) via a secondary public offering that could amount to overEUR140 million.
The announcement of the offering took the whole market by surprise,with this being the first time in Stock Exchange's 16-yearexistence when a multinational group does not delist a company butdecides to sell some of its shares.
This is why the deal could be at least as important as the sale bythe state of a 9.84% stake in Petrom, say brokers, because it wouldturn Alro into one of the leading companies on the StockExchange.
At present, although it is one of the biggest companies on theStock Exchange, with a capitalization of EUR685 million, Alro isnot interesting for big investment funds because of its lowliquidity, with only 2% of the stock being available for trading onthe Stock Exchange.
Vimetco together with Conef SA hold nearly 88% in Alro, whileFondul Proprietatea (Property Fund - FP.RO) has recently increasedits stake by 10%, buying most of the shares available for sale inthe last few months.
Vimetco motivated its decision through a desire to increase thefree-float and implicitly the company's attractiveness.
"We intend that the SPO would allow Alro's shareholders tocapitalize on higher liquidity of their shares due to the increasein free float. The SPO will also promote Alro's business image andvisibility on capital markets. Moreover, the SPO would be anopportunity for those minority shareholders who believe in Alro toincrease their stake in the company, and for others to join asshareholders", said Marian N`stase, Vimetco's CFO in a report sentto the London Stock Exchange.
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