Government stocks up for sale in 38 companies

Tuesday through Friday, the Moldova Stock Exchange will hold outcry auctions to sell government stocks in 38 companies. In 16 of them the government holds the majority interest. Among the companies whose stocks are up for sale are Farmaco (94.6%), Floare-Carpet (59.4%), Armo-beton (100%), Glass Conteiner Company (31.4%), Combustibil solid (78%), all based in Chisinau; and the Falesti-based Sanitation Machinery Factory (94%) and the Balti-based Raut Factory (76.5%). Public Property Agency head Tudor Copaci said most of these stocks have already been put up for auction, so now they are 5-20% on sale. “We hope the discounts will make them more attractive to potential investors. Since we announced the intention to hold auctions in October, we have received multiple queries from investors from Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and other countries”. This week's series of outcry auctions are part of the last round of privatization deals offered this year by the Public Property Agency. Other deals include an investment tender and a commercial tender, bids for which may be submitted until December 6. The privatization deals include a total of 80 sets of government-owned stocks. Their overall price is 1.3 billion lei, but the Agency expects this round to yield at least 200 million lei. This year's State Budget projects proceeds from privatizations to stand at 260 million lei. 110 million lei was already collected.