Romanian investment fund FP in talks to sell 49% in salt company

The biggest investment fund in Romania - Fondul Proprietatea (FP) is in talks for the sale of its 49% stake in the Romanian salt company Salrom, a monopoly controlled by the Ministry of Economy (51%).

FP has received non-binding offers for this stake in the last year, local Profit.ro reported. It evaluates its shares in Salrom at RON 250 million (EUR 52 million), but this is a book value used to assess its own portfolio.

FP has collected RON 42 million (EUR 9 million) in dividends only last year from the company.

FP proposed some three years ago to the Government to list company’s shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. But the state opposed the idea and implied it could be interested in buying out FP’s stake. The idea was in some form reiterated more recently this year by ruling coalition head Liviu Dragnea, who recommended the Government to buy residual stakes in state companies, in the context of establishing the Development and Investment Sovereign Fund (FSDI).

Salrom reported RON 62 million (EUR 13.3 million) net profit and RON 279 million (EUR 60 million) revenues from operations in January-September 2018. In 2017, the company achieved the highest net profit in its history: RON 74.3 million (EUR 16.5 million), 2.5 times higher than in the previous year.

In related news, Fondul Proprietatea manager Johan Mayer said on Thursday that the fund would not sell its 20% stake in power producer Hidroelectrica yet due to the recent legislative and tax changes on the energy market, which worried the investors.

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