The process will also lead to the cancellation of trading of the GDRs on the Main Market for financial instruments of the London Stock Exchange and of termination of the deposit agreement for the GDRs dated November 8, 2013, between the Company and The Bank of New York Mellon.
As announced including via a Regulatory Information Service (Regulatory News Services, RNS Number: 8214D), by Decision no. 11 of September 11, 2024, the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company’s Shareholders approved the delisting with a majority of 86.67% of the total number of voting rights.
“Following such Resolution of the EGMS and the Decision of Romgaz Board of Directors of September 24, 2024 approving, amongst other things, the details of the Delisting, the Company announces today the commencement of the process for the GDRs representing interests in the Company’s ordinary shares to be removed from the Official List of the UK Financial Conduct Authority and to cancel the trading of the GDRs on the Main Market for financial instruments of the London Stock Exchange,” Romgaz said in its report to the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
By way of background, the GDRs were admitted to trading on the Main Market for financial instruments of the London Stock Exchange on November 12, 2013. At that time, the listing of GDRs on the London Stock Exchange was decided by the company’s majority shareholder, the Romanian government through the Economy Ministry, simultaneously with the listing of Romgaz’s shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, as part of the Secondary Initial Public Offering of shares (as shares and GDRs) issued by Romgaz.
“Since then, there has been a steep reduction to the number of GDRs in issue. Thus, whereas on November 12, 2013, there were 20,085,048 GDRs, representing 5.21% of Romgaz’s share capital, as of May 20, 2024 (before the share capital increase) their number was down by 93.80% to 1,245,138 GDRs, with their related shares representing 0.32% of Romgaz’s share capital,” Romgaz added.
The Bucharest Stock Exchange’s development over the years, the inclusion of the company in the MSCI Emerging Markets indices – capitalization and liquidity and the market-making services contracted by the company since May 2023, have made the shares traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange more attractive, from a liquidity perspective, than the GDRs traded on the London Stock Exchange.
“Against this background and considering also the ongoing regulatory compliance and administrative costs the Company incurs as a result of its London Stock Exchange listing, Romgaz does not see a relevant benefit of maintaining this listing.”
Consequently, the company is now seeking the cancellation of the listing of its GDRs on the Official List and of their trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)