The listing of Fondul Proprietatea (Property Fund) injectedadrenaline into the weak heart of the Bucharest Stock Exchange,encouraging investors to daydream. Yet former owners have to waitbefore they can see their dreams come true.
Yesterday, January 25th, Fondul Proprietatea made history at theBucharest Stock Exchange, this being the most awaited listing ofthe last decade. Hopes of getting rich, illusions of being awardeddamages have been given an answer in the very first few minutes oftrading, when the Fondul Proprietatea share debuted at a price of0.602 RON, 39 bani (1 RON-100 bani) less than the nominal value. Anopportunity for those who bought shares on the grey market totriple their money, but a misfortune for former owners, who werecompensated for the properties confiscated by the communist regimeat the nominal value of 1 RON.
"The price will be volatile and I would not attach too muchimportance to the first-day price. For us liquidity is moreimportant, and the liquidity that the shareholders will receive,"said Greg Konieczny, manager of Fondul Proprietatea on the occasionof the listing.
Fondul Proprietatea shares debuted at 0.602 RON on the StockExchange yesterday, and ended up being traded at 0.65 RON towardsthe end of the session, above the forecasts of most brokers, whoexpected the first-day price to be slightly below 0.6 RON.
"It is true that the price of the Fund's share fluctuates, butcompensation through shares is a better solution than not gettinganything," said Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, former premier between2004 and 2008, founder of Fondul Proprietatea and Fundshareholder.
The value of transactions, over 50 million euros, was in fact thetrue surprise of the day, with over 2.5% of the fund's shares beingtransferred. The buyers were mostly foreign investors, a good signfor the Bucharest Stock Exchange, which is finally visible atinternational level.
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