Shares of financial investment companies (SIF) increased by 5.8% on average yesterday, taking into consideration 27 million euro worth of transactions, after the National Securities Commission (CNVM) published a decision stating that investment management companies (SAI) do not operate in concert with the investment funds or the investors whose accounts they manage.
Through this decision, the CNVM has practically given investors a solution to dodge the maximum stake cap of 1% for each SIF, which has been applied since last year to the groups of entities that operate in concert. A fund manger managing several funds may own 1% in each SIF for each of the funds managed, unless it is proven that these funds act in concert.
Decision no. 962, which includes these provisions was passed by the CNVM on Monday, June 18th, but was not published on the CNVM website until Tuesday evening. "The delay was due to some technical issues," a CNVM representative told ZIARUL FINANCIAR. The SIFs surged during Monday's trading session, when they increased by 2.6% due to higher traded volumes than the average level witnessed over the last few weeks, although no news emerged justifying such a rise. Later, SIFs witnessed a slight correction.
Taking yesterday's increase into account, the SIFs have gained 230 million euros since the beginning of this week, reaching a capitalisation of 2.93 billion euros.
"I believe this increase is partly related to the CNVM decision made at the beginning of this week, to offer large investors a loophole in order to avoid the 1% stake cap. Surely there are fund managers controlling 3 or 4 entities that are interested in taking over larger SIFs stakes", stated Octavian Molnar, manager of the IFB Finwest brokerage firm. CNVM's decision practically gives large fund managers, such as Julius Baer, which operates on the Romanian market through around 30 funds and via individual accounts of several large investors, the ability to accumulate significant stakes in SIFs.
CNVM's instructions issued in March this year concerning the enforcement of the 1% maximum stake in SIFs did not say anything about such entities, leaving room for interpretation.
"CNMV's decisions before this did not make any reference to the stakes in the funds and to the fund managers in SIFs, either. This decision confirms our interpretation of the CNVM instructions at the beginning of the year," stated Radu Hanga, general manager of BT Asset Management, the investment manager of Banca Transilvania.
Banca Transilvania had, after all, announced at the end of March that it had about 8% in SIF Banat-Crisana along with the parties "involved".
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