FP completed the transaction with Engie

Fondul Proprietatea (FP) completed the transaction by which it sold its 12% stake in Engie Romania to the company's majority shareholder, for 432.6 million lei, according to a FP report published yesterday on the Stock Exchange website Bucharest (BVB).

The money will be used to manage the fund's discount, which essentially means paying dividends and buying back its own shares. "When proposing any measure such as the Discount Control Mechanism, the FP administrator will also consider the current and potential funding requirements over a foreseeable time horizon, in accordance with the current size and profile of risk of the fund," states the report prepared by Franklin Templeton, FP administrator.

Last week, the fund's shareholders approved the transaction with Engie, which had been signed by the FP administrator last December, as well as a program to buy back up to one billion of its own shares (in the form of securities listed on the BSE or Global Depository Receipts listed in London), the equivalent of almost 18% of the Fund's capital, at prices between 0.2 lei and 1 lei for the BSE securities.

Instead, the proposal to sell all or some parts of FP's shares in the companies Aeroporturi Bucharest, Constanţa Port, Salrom and Alro, under certain conditions, was rejected by the fund's shareholders. Johan Meyer, CEO of Franklin Templeton Bucharest and Portfolio Manager of Fondului Proprietatea, emphasized that the shareholders' decision does not prevent the administrator from preparing transactions related to the fund's holdings.

The Revenue and Expenditure Budget for this year includes costs estimated at 8.2 million lei related to the Salrom listing, which include various commissions, fees, marketing expenses, etc. "With the exception of the listing of the National Salt Company, no specific transaction is contemplated or anticipated as of the date of this document," the BVC states.

On March 26, the Fund's shareholders will vote on the approval of the Management Contract with Franklin Templeton, for another year, respectively for the period April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2025. The Ministry of Finance owns 10.42% of the voting rights of FP, according to BVB reports, while at the end of December last year, the holdings of the Pillar II pension funds equaled 28.5% of the Fund's exercisable voting rights.

For the month of January, FP reported a Net Asset Unit Value of 0.6601 lei, which is equivalent to a trading discount of around 20%.