The Ministry of Finances has made a desperate, last-minute bid to block the transfer of Viohalco’s head offices to Belgium, by including a regulation in a bill irrelevant to the capital market.
The regulation demands that shareholders controlling 95% of a company must agree to the transfer, even if the company is listed and will swap shares. Until recently, the 95% approval only applied to non-listed companies, whereas for listed companied a 67% majority was required.
Viohalco’s original plan was for its Belgium subsidiary “Viohalco SA” to list its shares in the Euronext stock market exchange and then absorb the Greek company, while offering to trade one Belgian share for each Greek share.
The company’s main shareholders control about 74% of the company and with the new regulation it is virtually impossible for them to collect the necessary 95% for the transfer.
