SIF Muntenia – A shareholder asked to revoke the current Board of Nominees
SIF Muntenia (SIF4) announced that a shareholder Mr. Iaciu requested the addition of new topics on the incoming GSM agenda. These are the dismissal of the current Board of Nominees and the election of a new one. We remind that Mr. Iaciu has led a group of active shareholders which succeeded initially in revoking the old Board of Nominees in GSM but a Court cancelled the resolution. The Court decision was based on the fact that initially the asset manager declared that the group of shareholders acted in concerted manner. In late 2012, the Securities Commission issued a regulation saying that it would have the final say in suspending voting rights above the 5% limit. At the time of the previous GSM, the Securities Commission decided that the shareholders did not act in concerted manner. We view the news as positive for SIF4 shares.
Bucharest Stock Exchange - 2012 DPS proposal and EGSM call for share capital reduction and initiation of a shares repurchase program
The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) has called an EGSM for April 24(25), 2013. Shareholders can vote for the reduction of the share capital by RON 7.6 mn through the decrease of the nominal value from RON 10 to RON 9 per share and return in cash for shareholders (RON 1 per share). BVB is also proposing the initiation of a shares repurchase program of up to 1% of the share capital (76.7 ths shares). We remind that at the end of 2012, BVB held some RON 64.8 mn cash and T-bills.
Additionally, the company is proposing once more the modification of the fees structure by changing the fixed fee paid by each brokerage house and lowering the variable trading fees. The actual proposal was not made public, but we believe it will stand close to the previous one when BVB proposed a fixed fee for each trading participant of RON 3,500 per month (approx. EUR 9,500 per year per participant up from the current level of EUR 350 per year). Additionally, BVB proposed to lower the variable trading fee for shares, which makes up most of the trading, by 20%. The new proposed fee amounts to 0.13% (sell and buy cumulated fees not including the local SEC fee of 0.08%) from 0.162% (sell and buy cumulated fees not including the local SEC fee of 0.08%). We remind that quorum for the EGSM was not met (only 40% out of 50% necessary) thus, shareholders could not vote on the proposals.
BVB is also asking the approval of shareholders of a share capital increase between RON 10 mn and RON 37 mn to the Bucharest Clearing House, where BVB holds a stake of more than 50%.
In the GSM to be held in the same day, the company has also proposed a 2012 DPS of RON 1.1198 per share, which implies a pay-out ratio of 95% and a dividend yield of 5.3% taking into consideration yesterday’s closing price.
Given the new points on the agenda regarding the repurchase program and the share capital reduction, we believe that chances for the EGSM quorum to be met have increased compared to last time. As BVB charges at the moment one of the highest variable equity trading fees, the approval of the new tariffs scheme would be beneficial for the market as a whole.
