First clash between BSE and Templeton: Bucharest Stock Exchange wants FP all to itself
The listing of Fondul Proprietatea (Property Fund-FP) on a
foreign market is causing the first cracks in the relationship
between the management of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), which
does not want a new listing, and American group Franklin Templeton,
which plans to bring the Fund to London, Warsaw or Vienna, giving
assurances the Romanian market would not lose liquidity as a
result.
Since winning the management term in the summer of 2009, Franklin
Templeton disclosed plans to list Fondul Proprietatea on a foreign
stock exchange after the Bucharest listing, citing the need to make
shares more liquid.
Among the Stock Exchanges announced as potential targets for the
dual listing was the London Stock Exchange at first, while later
managers talked about Warsaw, Vienna or even Hong Kong. Since the
Fund was listed in Bucharest on January 25th, talks of a second
listing returned to public attention.
"As far as I am concerned, I don't want another listing of the
fund, that is why I insisted that international trading mechanisms
be introduced. Even if it were to happen, statistics show that in
the case of a dual listing, the highest liquidity remains on the
market of origin," said Valentin Ionescu, general manager of the
Bucharest Stock Exchange at a seminar organised by brokerage firm
Intercapital Invest in collaboration with Franklin Templeton
Investment on the FP listing on the BSE.
As of January 25th, the Stock Exchange introduced trading in global
accounts for FP shares, share loans and short selling for FP
shares, which the stock exchange operator wants to extend to all
Romanian issuers this spring.
The listing of Fondul Proprietatea generated 662 million RON (155
million euros) in transactions in two weeks' time, i.e. more than
55% of the stock exchange's overall volume of trading since the
beginning of this year.