Board dismisses largest Romanian electricity distributor’s CEO

Romanian electricity distributor Electrica’s board of directors revoked the company’s CEO Ioan Rosca on Friday, March 11, some three months before the end of his mandate. The board didn’t say why they took this decision. Ioan Rosca has been Electrica’s CEO since May 2012. He was the only executive that hadn’t been changed after the company’s listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, in July 2014. Electrica raised EUR 444 million from investors on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange, who bought 51% of the company’s shares. The company hasn’t invested the money, in the almost two years since its listing. Electrica owns the electricity distribution companies in three of Romania’s regions and also supplies electricity to these regions. The company, which is still 49% state-owned, had consolidated revenues of EUR 1.13 billion and a net profit of EUR 65 million in 2014. The company’s biggest minority shareholder is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which owns an 8.6% stake in the company. Electrica currently has a market capitalization of EUR 954 million (as of March 14, 2016). The Electrica board’s decision came the same day that news emerged about an investigation into the company’s past acquisitions of Microsoft license. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) apparently asked Electrica for several documents related to public procurement procedures carried out between 2009 and 2012, according to local profit.ro. editor@romania-insider.com