BROKERS FLOCK TO THE CENTRAL DEPOSITORY TO BUY SHARES IN THE PROPRIETATEA FUND Buying shares of the Proprietatea Fund by speculating the naiveté of old people

• Claudiu Simulescu of "Fairwind Securities", Sorin Apostol of "KBC Securities" and Ciprian Zah of "Broker" Cluj are just some of the brokers that were present yesterday at the Central Depository

Some of the most notorious Romanian brokers could be seen yesterday waiting patiently in the rooms of the Central Depository, trying to seize the last day when the institution was still accepting transfers of shares in the Proprietatea Fund. Brokers waited for hours, together with the shareholders of the Proprietatea Fund, like the members of the Commission who checked the papers of the shareholders in order to determine whether the papers of the sellers and of the buyers were alright or not.

Claudiu Simulescu, the head of "Fairwind Securities", brokerage firm of Dinu Patriciu, Ciprian Zah of "Broker" Cluj and a member on the Board of Directors of the BSE and Sorin Apostol, of "KBC Securities", are just a few of the brokers that were present at the Central Depository yesterday, and were interested in buying shares in the Proprietatea Fund. Most of them are saying they want to buy shares for their customers.

"More or less seriously, it almost feels like old times, when almost all brokers would meet in the street to buy or sell shares", said one of the brokers that were waiting yesterday at the headquarters of the Depository, probably thinking about the times when brokers would be buying vouchers in the street from the people that received them as part of the Mass privatization program.

"I am buying shares for my customers, they are hoping the price will go up after the Fund gets listed on the BSE", another broker said, who didn"t want to disclose the price he was paying for the shares, claiming it was "confidential".

The shares of the Proprietatea Fund yesterday sold for prices ranging between 0.43 lei and 0.52 lei/share, according to the brokers present at the Central Depository yesterday that we talked to.

Last week, the Central Depository informed investors that it would only operate transfers of shares in the Proprietatea Fund until December 21st, invoking a decision of the Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM) which stipulates that the transactions with shares of the Proprietatea Fund will be made in compliance with the legislation of the capital market, once the shares of the Fund get registered as securities by the issuing of the afferent Securities Registration Certificate (CIVM).

• Trades "assisted" by the President of the Association of Private Shareholders of the Proprietatea Fund himself

Some of the shareholders of the Fund chose to sell some of their holdings just a few weeks before the long awaited listing of the Proprietatea Fund on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, due to their need to raise cash before the winter holidays. However, some of the shareholders of the Fund that sold their shares yesterday did not know that the Fund would get listed on January 25th, 2011.

Two people in their seventies, who had come in from the countryside, were waiting yesterday in one of the rooms of the Central Depository"s headquarters for the deal to sell their shares in the fund to be completed, together with the broker who was buying their shares, and Marius Murgu, the chairman of the Association of Private Shareholders of the Proprietatea Fund.

"We want to sell because our son needs a spare part for his car", said one of the sellers.

When asked why he wasn"t waiting for the listing of the Fund on the Stock Exchange, considering that he had already waited for five years, the other shareholder shrugged his shoulders, hinting that he didn"t really know anything about the stock market and the notion of the listing: "I am old, who knows how much longer I"ve got left on this earth, I may not live enough to make anything on it", he said in justifying his decision to sell his shares.

The broker that was buying the shares of the two old people bluntly cut us off, claiming that the price at which the deal was concluded was confidential and that we were intruding on a private transaction.

Marius Murgu, the chairman of the Association of Private Shareholders said that he was "consulting" for the two old shareholders of the Fund, who had decided to sell their shares before the listing, even though he had advised them not to do it.