Franklin Templeton starts putting FP money to work

Fondul Proprietatea (FP) in February invested around 305m lei (72m euros) and boosted the number of stakes in listed companies from 28 in late January to 30, according to the net asset reports sent to the BSE.

The fund's liquidities, which include cash, banking deposits and the T-bill portfolio, shrank from 1.323bn lei (311m euros) at the end of January to 1.017bn lei (239m euros) in late February.

On the other hand, the fund's listed stock portfolio rose in value by around 835m lei (196m euros) to 6.06bn lei (1.25bn euros). In the increase, around 500-550m euros represent the value growth of listed stakes in the fund's portfolio and the gap may be represented by new investments.

However, the reports sent to the Bourse do not show in what the money was placed, but part of it is likely to have gone into BRD stock, the only stock on the Bourse that were the object of major deals in February.

These would be the first investments Franklin Templeton US group has made since it took over the management of FP assets, in September 2010, after in the first phase it focused on the fund's floatation and on litigation with the state on some decisions the Economy Ministry made on the energy companies in its portfolio.