The Advent International investment fund paid €22.3 million for a 65.8 percent share package of Ceramica Iasi, a company specializing in manufacturing masonry products, according to sources on the market. The 10.75 million shares were traded at RON 6.58/share (some €2.05/share), 39 percent below the closing price in Thursday's session. The price of one share exceeded RON 10 (€3.12) on the market. The two Ceramica Iasi (CERE) share packages were sold at the end of Friday's Rasdaq trading session in two special public offering section transactions. The company's capitalization according to a RON 6.58/share quotation is RON 107.42 million (€33.8 million), compared to its market value of RON 173 million (€54.06 million), according to quotations on the regular market.
The majority shareholder of Ceramica was its Employee Association, with a 41.5 percent participation. The package was worth some €22 million on the electronic Rasdaq market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. In early June, the Employee Association was dissolved and the shares were divided among employees. Corneliu Lucaci, former General Manager of the company owned a 6.37 percent share package, worth a total of €3.48 million if traded at an average value of RON 10.95 (€3.42). The current General Manager, Aurel Tariceanu has a 6.13 percent package, worth €3.35 million on the market.
In the first quarter of 2007, Ceramica Iasi posted €2.86 million in net sales, a 44 percent increase from Q1 2006. Ceramica estimated its net profit at approximately €3.1 million in 2007, double that year-on-year. Favorable results in the January-March 2007 period were due to sustained growth in the area of production, by almost 50 percent.
