CNPF suspends circulation of shares issued by agro-firm “Cimilia” SA

The Administration Board of the National Commission on Financial Markets (CNPF) issued an ordinance to suspend the circulation of the shares issued by the agro-firm “Cimislia” SA, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to a communiqué from CNPF, the decision was made on the basis of the judgment banning the sale of the company’s shares passed by the District Economic Court. At the same time, after checking the dealings in the agro-firm’s shares performed on the secondary market, CNPF ascertained that the dispute between the shareholders of the company arose mainly because the firm’s Statute did not contain clear stipulations about the methods of selling its shares. Consequently, by its decision CNPF warned the administrators of the company about the necessity of adjusting the Statute to the present legislation. It was also decided to inform the General Prosecutor’s Office about the results of the inspection. Earlier, a group of shareholders of “Cimislia” SA accused the company’s administration of attempt to illegally sell the majority holding to the wine company “Acorex Wine Holding”. The shareholders notified the Prosecutor’s Office, the Division of Economic Crime and Corruption, and CNPF and filed a lawsuit. At a news conference on March 5, the mayor of Cimislia town Gheorghe Raileanu said that the president of the agro-firm Timofei Tapordei on December 22 started to sell the company’s shares. The mayor stated that the shareholders had been manipulated, cheated and threatened with dismissal if they do not sell their shares. In a short period of time, during the winter holidays, “Acorex Wine Holding” managed to purchase 28.8% of the shares in “Cimislia” SA for 100 lei a share with a nominal value of 1,000 lei. The people were forced to sell their holdings after they had received no dividends for three years and salaries for seven months. Gheorghe Raileanu said that practically all the former shareholders filed later applications to cancel the transaction, but none of them had any sale-purchase document. “Cimialia” SA is a winemaking complex that includes four wineries with a total capacity of about 60,000 tonnes. The mayor’s office of Cimislia town holds half of the shares in the agro-firm that remains a closed-type joint stock company until the majority holding is sold. Acorex purchased two shares in the company in 2004. The agro-firm was created in December 1994 instead of the state-owned company “Iantar”.