Investors are flocking to sell FP shares in the offering

• The market operation ends today at 12:00

Investors are flocking to sell shares in Fondul Proprietatea's offer made by administrator Franklin Templeton, according to data available on the platform of a brokerage house.

By 3pm yesterday, sell orders had been entered for 1.63 billion FP shares, equivalent to over 600% subscription to the offer (excluding subscriptions to London-listed Global Depositary Receipts), which was released for 269 million titles. The subscription price is 0.662 lei per share listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, about 70% above yesterday's market quote, from the second part of the trading session, of 0.3796 lei.

The offer, which started on September 11, will end today at 12:00.

The operation is part of the buyback program approved by FP shareholders in February 2024, through which the green light was given to the acquisition during this year of at most one billion own shares (in the form of securities listed on the BVB or GDRs listed on the London Stock Exchange), at prices between 0.2 lei per unit and 1 lei per unit (for securities listed on the BVB).

The Ministry of Finance, which at the end of August controlled almost 11% of FP's voting rights, wants the administrator Franklin Templeton to no longer be able to buy back its own shares and preserve the current portfolio of FP, that is, the fund not to sell its holdings, points that were included on the agenda of the FP shareholders' meeting on September 27. In justifying the requests, the Finances claim that the measures are necessary to establish the new investment policy of Fondul Proprietatea, taking into account the interests of the shareholders as a whole for the long-term fulfillment of the FP's investment mandate.

Also on the 27th, the shareholders will choose the appointment for a period of three years of two members of the FP Representatives Committee, as a result of the expiration of the mandate of Nicholas Paris on April 6, 2024 and the resignation of Martin Bernstein, which became effective on date of July 12, 2024.

The registered candidates are Nicholas Paris, proposed by the shareholder LCL GRUP SRL, George-Vladimir Duhan, proposed by the Ministry of Finance, Marian-Cristian Mocanu who proposed himself, Istvan Sarkany who proposed himself, Ileana-Lăcrămioara Isărescu (daughter of the governor of the BNR, Mugur Isărescu, according to HotNews), proposed by the BT Maxim fund - managed by BT Asset Management and Andrew James Noble, proposed by shareholder Antoniu Codreanu.

Fondul Proprietatea shares are currently traded at a discount of around 40% compared to the Net Asset Unit Value. The stock market valuation of FP amounts to 1.37 billion lei.