Shares of Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea reach all time high on Bucharest Stock Exchange

The shares of Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea, managed by Franklin Templeton Investment Management, recently reached an all time high. Traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the Fondul Proprietatea shares reached a record high level of RON 0.68 per share on Wednesday, August 7, which was up 27 percent since the beginning of the year. “This is a historic moment for our shareholders and for our team and I believe it is an important event for the local market, as the Fund’s success reflects on Romania’s attractiveness as an investment destination. We have worked hard to unlock value for our shareholders and we remain committed to our long-term vision for Fondul Proprietatea. To this end, we will continue our actions aimed at increasing the NAV per share and at reducing the discount to NAV, such as executing our buy-back programme and remaining actively involved in the operations of our portfolio companies,” said Greg Konieczny, Fund Manager of Fondul Proprietatea. At this all time high price, the fund's capitalization on the BSE is of EUR 2.1 billion. Earlier in 2013, the fund manager announced that foreigners have invested over EUR 750 million in Romania's Fondul Proprietatea shares in the two years since the fund was listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, “which represents the largest foreign investment ever attracted to the Romanian capital market,” according to Greg Konieczny. Foreigners are the largest individual shareholders in the fund, with Elliott Associates holding 14.95 percent in FP, while City of London Investment Management holds 9.69 percent and The Royal Bank of Scotland, 5.39 percent. With 9,363 shareholders, the fund had 6.4 billion of its shares traded in 2012, and an average daily turnover of EUR 3 million. The value of the traded shares was of EUR 768 million. The average daily turnover was more than three times higher than the second placed, blue chip BRD. The fund's largest assets in portfolio are OMV Petrom, which is listed. The second largest, Hidroelectrica, recently exited insolvency, while the third, Romgaz, is due for IPO in 2013. CE Oltenia and Nuclearelectrica are also due for IPO or sale in late 2013. The fund's top ten portfolio holdings have a value of some EUR 2 billion. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Agerpres)