Secretary of State Alin Andries has joined the Council of FP Representatives

Alin Andries, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance, was elected by the shareholders of Fondul Proprietatea (FP) to the Council of FP Representatives for a three-year term, according to a fund report published yesterday on the website of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).

The Secretary of State will take the place of Omer Tetik, whose mandate expires on April 6. Alin Andries is a PhD professor in finance at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi.

Also yesterday, the fund's shareholders approved the management contract between FP and Franklin Templeton for a period of one year, starting from 1 April 2024 and ending on 31 March 2025, with the change in the manager's base fee to 1.35%, as requested by Finance.

Instead, the point that stipulated that the strategy applicable to the fund during the mandate period from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 should include the preservation of the current portfolio managed by Franklin Templeton, a point introduced at the request of the Ministry of Finance, was not approved by the shareholders. According to Finance, the request was to allow the administrator to be able to develop a medium and long-term fund strategy based on a solid portfolio of holdings, as mentioned in the response sent by the ministry to the BURSA newspaper earlier this week.

Also, FP shareholders did not approve the budget for this year, nor the appointment of a new member to the Board of Representatives to replace Nicholas Paris, whose term expires on April 6.

At the end of next month, the shareholders of Fondul Proprietatea will meet again to approve the distribution of a dividend of 0.06 lei per share, which is equivalent to a gross yield of about 11.4% compared to yesterday's FP share price, with half of hour before the closing of the trading session. The money comes from the retained earnings, and the approval of the allocation of dividends is conditioned by the approval of covering the accounting loss of last year of 904 million lei, from various elements of the retained earnings.

In February, FP shareholders approved a program to buy back up to one billion of their own shares. At the end of February, Fondul Proprietatea had a net asset of 2.33 billion lei, the largest holdings being the stakes in the companies Aeroporturi Bucharest, Porturi Constanţa and Salrom.