PROCEDURE OF SHARE SELLING SHOULD LAST LONGER– IURIE FILIP

For selling shares banks are issuing instead of the non-transparent shareholders’ cancelled shares, more time is necessary.

In an interview with Infotag, first Deputy Chairman of the National Commission for Financial Market (NCFM) Iurie Filip said that Moldova Agroindbank (MAIB), which is implementing the placement of shares on the public market, has first faced the problem that 90 days, given for selling 40% shares, were not enough.

“Unfortunately, it turned out that this is an absolutely unreal term. Consequently, we extended it to 9 months. So far, I cannot say how real is that investors to appear over this time”, he said.

Filip reminded that according to the legislation, any person, who wants to buy bank stakes, which exceed a certain amount, should first get National Bank of Moldova (NBM) permission.

“40% is a majority package, respectively, serious investors need time to clarify the situation. The NBM also needs much time, especially in the light of the latest events, to thoroughly check the interested investor. Even on normative acts, regulator has 6 months for issuing buying permit to the new shareholder”, he said.

In reality, it turned out that both in case of insurance companies and in the case of banks, the seeking of strategic investors demand much more time than it was supposed.

“In accordance with the international practice, this process may extend for one, two, three or even five years”, Filip said, finding it difficult to tell concrete terms of share selling.

According to him, currently, neither the NCFM nor the NBM can take decisions in this concern without a certain legislative decision.

“As of today, we have a law, which is as it is. No situation occurred on the market at the time it was adopted. Now we understand that we have to study everything deeper and in more detail. Such situations have almost never happened in international practice. There were cases when a certain part of shares has been blocked, but these were mostly shareholders with comparatively small packages. In Moldova, both in banks and in insurance companies it is about major packages of shares, which imposes a radical and quality change of shareholders’ membership”, Iurie Filip said.