Fondul Proprietatea (Property Fund - FP) rush has taken overRomania this winter and the tens of millions of euros expected toenter Romania after its floatation on the Bucharest Stock Exchangeare making many shareholders already dream of becomingmillionaires.
As of January 25, when the floatation of Fondul Proprietatea onthe Bucharest Stock Exchange will take place, foreign investorswill have access to Romania's most valuable company, which has 3.5billion euros in assets and stakes in the leading local energycompanies.
To attract foreign investment funds, the broker consortiumcomprising Raiffeisen Capital & Investment, ING and BRD, puttogether the biggest road show ever for a Romanian issuer. TheFondul Proprietatea tour started in Bucharest and will continue inLondon, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, Helsinki, Tallinn, Budapest,Copehagen, Stockholm, Warsaw, Zurich and Amsterdam until February1.
Those who are most early awaiting the foreign investment funds toarrive are the speculators, who became shareholders of the Fundbecause of political influence and not because they had had theirproperties seized by the communist regime.
On the other hand, over 50,000 former owners are expecting toreceive their compensation from the authorities in charge of this,but the process will not resume any sooner than May, after thefloatation of the Fund.
The Romanian state is going to offer Fondul Proprietatea shares ascompensation to over 60,000 former owners depending on the price ofstock on the BSE starting May, after in the past five years around5,000 persons have received shares at the fixed value of 1RON.
If the stock quote will stand below 1 RON, there are premises ofdiscrimination between the old shareholders and the new ones, whoare likely to receive a higher number of shares for the same valueof compensations, lawyers maintain.
A stock price on the Bucharest Stock Exchange of below 1 RON isgoing to put pressure on the stake of 5.4 billion shares the statestill holds in Fondul Proprietatea for the compensation of formerowners. Thus, what for former owners will mean more shares, for theRomanian state will mean a rapid Fund dry-up.
"In two years at the latest, the state will exhaust FondulProprietatea, I expect the over 5.4 billion shares left to beenough for another 5,000 persons. The big problem is what is goingto happen with the over 50,000 former owners waiting for years atANRP. Will the Romanian state be willing to raise the Fund'scapital or will it put a lid on compensations and schedule paymentsover long intervals?," lawyer Iulian Lepa wonders.
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