State-owned shares in two companies sold at opening price

State-owned shares in two companies were sold on November 23 on the exchange at their opening prices. A 21.1 pct stake in the Ungheni-based ferroconcrete maker Consator SA was sold for 256,700 lei (7 lei apiece). 16.16 pct of stock of the Chisinau-based commercial enterprise Universcom SA was sold for a staring price of 40 lei a share. The total value of the acquisition was 3.07 million lei. According to the Ministry of Economy and Trade, in the period from November 16 to November 23, 2007, government-owned assets in 83 joint stock companies have been placed under the hammer. These are the first auctions to take place under the new Law on the management and denationalisation of public property, which was adopted in June 2007 in an effort to ensure maximum transparency of the deals in the privatisation process.