Raiffeisen Bank and Foreign Investors Council head, Elliott's proposal for Fondul Proprietatea committee

Steven Van Groningen, the head of Raiffeisen Bank Romania and the president of the Foreign Investors Council in the country, is American fund Elliott's proposal from for a seat on Romania's Fondul Proprietatea Representatives Committee. Van Groningen is also a shareholder in the fund. The American fund also proposed Piotr Rymaszewski, CEO of Polish Octava NFI for a seat on the surveillance committee, which oversees the way fund manager Franklin Templeton runs the Romanian fund. Elliott is the largest shareholder in Fondul Proprietatea, with 13.9 percent of the shares. City of London, another shareholder in Fondul Proprietatea,with 7 percent of the shares, proposed Julian Rupert Francis Healy from Britanica Chislehurst. Fondul Proprietatea has recently indicated that it wants to sell its stakes in several energy companies in Romania, where it controls minority packages. The total value of these holdings is EUR 527 million, or 15 percent of the fund’s net asset value. This decision came soon after Elliott Associates asked the fund managers to start selling stakes in some Romanian companies in the next three years, in exchange for a higher fee. The fund has mandated Citigroup as intermediary for the possible transactions. Fondul Proprietatea, managed by the US group Franklin Templeton and floating on the Bucharest Stock Exchange since 2011, aims to sell its share packages in several companies, where its shareholding varies between 12 and 24 percent: E.ON Moldova Distributie, E.ON Gaz Distributie, E.ON Energie Romania, Enel Distributie Muntenia, Enel Energie Muntenia, Enel Distributie Banat, Enel Distributie Dobrogea, Enel Energie, GDF Suez Energy Romania, Electrica Distributie Muntenia Nord, Electrica Distributie Transilvania Nord, Electrica Distributie Transilvania Sud, Electrica Furnizare. The fund was created to compensate the owners of properties confiscated during the communist period, when the compensation was no longer possible in kind. Its assets value some EUR 3.6 billion and its shares are floating on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. editor@romania-insider.com