An investor has filed a complaint against "Certinvest" with the ASF

Investor Mihai Dragoş has filed a complaint with the Financial Oversight Authority concerning the open fund Certinvest Dinamic, managed by Certinvest.

He claims that the value of the fund's units was being updated slowly on its website and he also raises questions over the ties between the fund's managers and the companies and unlisted bonds included in the fund's portfolio.

The investor has reported to the ASF that "the fund charges investors a commission 6% a year applied to the total asset (0.5% on the net total asset) and has doubtful results, does not publish the prices of its fund units on time, hardly sells fund units (their number is constantly dropping), last year the fund's shares were dropping as the stock market was rising and the fund had over 50% of its investments in stocks".

He also asked questions on who approved the purchase of unlisted, unsecured bonds and for which the annual coupon is not clearly presented, who is behind that bond issuer and what are their connections to the management of the fund, which has approved the acquisition of unlisted shares, and whether there is a connection between these companies and the management of FDI Certinvest Dinamic.

Upon request from the "BURSA" newspaper to provide clarifications concerning the investors' questions, Horia Gusta, president and CEO of Certinvest told us: "Any customer, if they are unhappy, they can talk to us (on the phone, by email or at our company's headquarters) or file a request with the ASF. In doing so, they will receive all the answers, as stipulated in the fund's documents and by the legislation in effect.

We can't afford to enter the logic of a customer that makes untrue statements, malicious and broad in nature ("who approves the acquisition of stocks" or "hardly sells").

To the point, I can tell you that the Certinvest Dinamic fund complies with all the legal provisions in effect, only makes investments allowed in the legal framework and makes all the reports requested by the legislation.

The response given to an investor - in the form of an article written by you - which asks this kind of questions, can affect the interests of the other investors, and, at the same time, can distort the perception of the entire mutual fund industry by investors and readers".

Last year, Mihai Dragoş has addressed his requests for clarification to Certinvest directly, but he still feels like he didn't get the complete answers.

On June 30 2017, the Certinvest Dinamic fund had in its portfolio bonds that were not admitted for trading issued by MW Green Power Export, with various maturities, amounting to 2.89 million lei, which represented 15.5% of the total assets. The shareholders of this company are the Closed Investment Fund Certinvest Green, with 99.9% of the shares, and the Closed Investment Fund Certinvest Ro Properties, with 0.08%.

In April 2017, the shareholders have approved the split of the company.

In a response sent by Certinvest to the investor in question it is stated that MW Green Power Export SA is a company that has accomplished a photovoltaic renewable energy project.

In the portfolio of Certinvest Dinamic were also included in mid-2017, was a stake of 0.22% of Rocredit IFN SA, amounting to 62,463 lei, and a block of 9.72% of Certinvest IMM SA, amounting to 131,185 lei.

According to the response that Certinvest gave the investor, Certinvest IMM SA is a joint stock company which has as its manager SAI Certinvest SA, and Rocredit IFN SA is a non-banking financial company.

According to the investor, Certinvest also told him that in terms of the appraisal of the evaluation of the fund's assets, the securities that are not admitted for trading on a regulated market or on trading systems other than the regulated market can be evaluated at their book value per share, as it follows from the last approved financial statement of the entity in question. The information concerning the acquisition method and their price are not and cannot be public, the manager told the customer, according to what the latter claims.

At Certinvest IMM, its shareholders are the Closed Investment Fund Certinvest Ro Properties, with 21.6%, the Closed Investment Fund Certinvest Leader, with 27.7%, the Open Fund Certinvest Dinamic, with 9.7%, as well as SIF Transilvania, with 15.62%.

Mihai Dragoş further told us: "It is absolutely crazy how this fund manager is robbing the investors blind with huge fee (calculated based on assets, not results), whereas from my point of view it has no performances, just opacity.

It «hides» public information, such as the evolution of the number of fund shares, as there is no archive on the website where you can see detailed daily evolutions, and make economic analyses. They hide behind just two reports a year and the fact that they publish «daily» the structure and value of the fund share.

They post the values of the fund's shares, their structure and number whenever the mood strikes them, skipping working days from the calendar. On January 23rd, 2018, 25th and 26th, the stock market was active, the stock prices fluctuated, and they published nothing, even though 55% of their portfolio is made up of shares. They did the same in the period between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

I wonder whether the people who made the decision to place the investors' money in unlisted or unsecured instruments have some personal interest in those families, or their families.

Before placing money in such securities they have submitted the statement under the sanction of law because they or their relatives and parents up the fourth degree have no interest in those companies".

In 2016, the ASF imposed on Certinvest a plan of measures, following the audit of 2015, but in the beginning of the year, the Authority has announced that it would keep the fund manager under monitoring.

In February 2017, Horia Gusta, the CEO of "Certinvest", told us that the company agreed to carrying out the aspects established by the Financial Oversight Authority (ASF) through the measures it notified it about. Back then, he said: "Following the periodic audit of the fund conducted in June 2015, the Financial Oversight Authority established, at the end of April 2016, several aspects which SAI Certinvest SA needs to carry out. It is a custom of the ASF that following any audit it decides on measures that the audited entities need to carry out within certain delays.

Thus, compliance was sought with the new requirements of the ASF, pertaining to the procedures in the area of conflicts of interest and risk management for a period of 18 months".

According to the decision of the ASF of October 10th, 2016, SAI Certinvest was fined 18,324 lei, representing 0.3% of the turnover made in the 2015 fiscal year. The ASF found that "Certinvest" managed the collective portfolio without honoring the investors' interests, which led to the failure to honor an obligation to buy back the fund units owned by an investor in FII Certinvest Properties RO.

SAI Certinvest SA is a joint stock company with fully Romanian capital, operating on the Romanian capital market since 1994.