The investment funds managed by the US branch of the Swiss Julius Baer bank, reached an exposure of more than 355 million dollars (270 million euros) on the Bucharest Stock Exchange at the end of January.
The investments of the three funds (Julius Baer Global Equity Fund, Julius Baer International Equity Fund and Julius Baer International Equity Fund II) account for more than 1% of the total capitalisation of the Bucharest Stock Exchange and of the RASDAQ.
The value of the investments of the three funds on the stock market increased by 127 million dollars (around 96 million euros) in the past year, with almost half of this growth recorded in the last quarter for which reports were filed (November 2006-January 2007), according to the quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the capital market supervisory authority in the US, at the beginning of this month. The growth was generated, on the one hand, by the positive trend of the Bucharest Stock Exchange towards the end of last year and in the first month of this year, and by the new investments made by the funds.
Meanwhile, the Bucharest Stock Exchange also recorded a slight decline, due to the overall corrections on the international markets, so that the value of the Julius Baer funds' investments may have decreased slightly.
Julius Baer International Equity Fund, the biggest portfolio investor on the BSE, increased its placements on the market by 47.6 million dollars (more than 36 million euros), from November 2006 through January 2007, to a portfolio of around 312 million dollars (238 million euros). Investments made on the Romanian market accounted for about 1.4% of the net asset of the fund at the end of January, which stood at 22.2 billion dollars (some 16.9 billion euros).
The fund bought almost 1.39% in the Rompetrol Rafinare petroleum company for around 7.8 million euros, increasing its interest to more than 3.1%. The acquisitions also included a stake of 6.6% in the drilling company Dafora Medias, as well as smaller stakes in Banca Transilvania, Antibiotice Iasi, Biofarm Bucuresti, Compa Sibiu and Socep Constanta. On the other hand, the fund sold a small stake in BRD. The fund also owns almost 1% in Petrom, around 1.16% in BRD-Grope Societe Generale, about 6% in real estate developer Impact, over 5% in drug maker Biofarm, 6.2% in automotive component Compa Sibiu and 9.6% of Condmag Brasov. In addition, it holds 1% in each of the SIFs.
The second fund part of the Julius Baer family operating on the Romanian market is Julius Baer International Equity Fund II, which had 43 million dollars (32.8 million euros) invested in Petrom and BRD at the end of January. It holds 0.25% of Petrom and 0.18% of BRD.
Julius Baer Global Equity Fund is the smallest of the Julius Baer funds operating on the Stock Exchange, with investments of nearly 500,000 dollars (380,000 euros) in Petrom, BRD, Impact and SIF shares.
The three Julius Baer funds totalled more than 26.6 billion dollar (20 billion euro) assets together, after having invested on both mature and emerging capital markets in America, Europe and Asia.
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