Manager of the biggest closed-end fund: It's good we were able to survive the crisis

STK Emergent closed-end investment fund was hit from all sides by the financial crisis: the 2008 Bourse collapse caught it with high exposures on SIFs and RASDAQ-listed stock, while the real estate market crunch made it postpone 50m euros' worth of investments.
With assets under management worth 75.2m lei (18m euros), STK Emergent is the biggest leu-denominated closed-end investment fund on the domestic market.
In late 2010, almost half of its portfolio, namely 36.8m lei (8.6m euros) was invested in listed stock. On the Bourse, the value of the fund stands at 28.6m lei (6.7m euros), below the value of the stock portfolio. The other portfolio half is represented by the stake in STK Properties, which planned to start a real estate project in 2008, which was halted, though, as a result of the crisis.
"The collapse of the Bourse caught everybody by surprise. It's good we were able to survive," said Nicolae Pascu, president of STK financial, the fund's manager.
Pascu expects a strong Bourse rebound in 2011, counting on a 50% increase in domestic stocks, which he considers to be way undervalued at present, by yearend.