Sinteza President leaves company management, weeks after abandoning Lockheed Martin project

Alexandru Savin, investment manager and board member of Roca Investments, resigned earlier this week from his position as president and board member of chemical company Sinteza Oradea, according to a report published by the issuer on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) website.

Savin had been part of the Sintza board since the beginning of 2020, given that Roca Investments had entered Sinteza's shareholder base in October 2019 by purchasing an 18% stake in the chemical company in the "deal" market, for which it had paid approximately 2.81 million lei to the BT Invest 1 fund.

In the second half of November last year, Sinteza Oradea announced the construction of a battery factory in Oradea together with Lockheed Martin, worth 50 million euros, which was to produce 30,000 tons of negative electrolyte per year, starting in the summer of 2026. The announcement brought a strong increase in the Sinteza share price. In the second half of May, the company's Board of Directors announced that it was abandoning the project following an internal assessment that showed that, in the current market context, the project is not economically feasible, involves too high risks and investments and does not align strategically with the company's objectives, despite the technological potential and available financing, as shown in the BVB report.

Roca had tried to sell its 18% stake in Sinteza in February through an accelerated placement, but managed to sell only 2.7% of the issuer's shares, at a unit price of 2.5 lei, 21.88% below the reference. Subsequently, the fund sold more of the Sinteza shares it held, so that at the last reporting date it still had 9.88 million shares of the company, equivalent to 14.95% of the chemical company.

For the first quarter of this year, Sinteza Oradea reported a loss of 1.81 million lei, lower than the loss of 2.74 million lei in the same period last year. Alternative Investment Fund BT Invest 1 had 33.9% of Sinteza in the middle of last year, while Radu Pascu owned 30.8% of the company, whose stock market valuation is about 42 million.