Freezing listings of minority packages on capital market goes against Romania's interests

The legislative initiative that forbids for 2 years the listing of state companies restricts the state's capacity to optimally utilize capital markets to finance costs and investments, shows a release of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB). "The Bucharest Stock Exchange notes with regret the approval by Parliament of a legislative proposal regarding some measures to protect the national interests in the economic activity. BVB believes such a legislative initiative does not bring benefits to the Romanian state but, on the contrary, restricts its capacity to optimally utilize capital markets to finance costs and investments and, furthermore, delays the process of modernizing and streamlining the state's holdings portfolio. Ever since the adoption by the Senate of the mentioned legislative initiative, BVB has sent its points of view on it to political parties, to the members of the Chamber of Deputies' select committees, to the Government and Presidency, opinions argued for, among others, with examples of state companies that are listed on the local market," the release mentions. "It's very important to take into account that, at this time, the private pension funds are the largest shareholder on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with a percentage estimated between 25 pct and 30 pct of the total shares in trading. These pension funds hold the assets of the population. Thus, we can state that through the listings a transfer of assets from the state to citizens is conducted. We believe that this trend must continue and even develop, especially in regards to encouraging direct holdings of financial assets by the population," the release shows. The plenum of the Chamber of Deputies has adopted, on Wednesday, the draft law regarding some measures to protect the national interests in the economic activity according to which it is forbidden, for a period of two years, to estrange the state's participations in national companies and societies, in banks, as well as in any other company where the state is a shareholder, regardless of the participation quota held, according to the normative act.AGERPRES(RO - author: George Banciulea, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)