Romania’s Cap Mrkt Regulator Suspends Flamingo Intl Bonds Offer for Two Weeks

Flamingo International launched a 29 million lei ($9.9 million/6.9 million euro) issue of convertible bonds for shareholders with preemptive rights, saying the would be valid  from December 3 until January 2. For other interested investors the offer was scheduled from January 5 to January 11, 2010.

“We see the news as negative as it could mean that the bonds offer could be aborted. The money raised could have helped the company out of the recently started insolvency procedure and could have made creditors more willing to support the company,” Raiffeisen Capital & Investment said in a note to investors.

Last week Flamingo commenced insolvency proceedings as negotiations over an additional debt write-off with ING Bank failed. The bank refused to further write off Flamingo's debt and launched a seizure procedure against some of the company's outlets.

Flamingo’s shares were suspended from trading for an indefinite period of time on Monday. They were last traded 14.75% lower at 0.0185 lei on Monday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

Flamingo reported a 35.4 million lei loss in the first nine months of 2009, up from 3.69 million lei loss a year earlier.

(1 euro = 4.2172 Romanian lei)