Shares In Former F.M.O.A. Hit Four-Year High Record

Shares in "The Businessmen's Fund" ("Fondul Oamenilor de Afaceri"), F.O.A., formerly known as F.M.O.A., have reached the highest price in the last four years as the shares that changed hands on R.A.S.D.A.Q. this week were sold for 19,000 ROL. Although this price is considerably better than before, F.O.A. shares still have a long way to go before reaching 27,141 ROL, which is the level at which F.M.O.A. collapsed in 1996 (without considering the inflation rate since 1996). For the time being, 27,141 ROL is only the face value of F.O.A. sha-res. In the year 2000, F.M.O.A. became a closed-end fund and was listed on R.A.S.D.A.Q. On this occasion, its name was changed so as to exclude the word "Mutual" and so it became F.O.A. Currently, the fund has a share capital of 175.07 billion ROL.

F.O.A., managed by "S.A.F.I. Invest," concluded the year 2003 with net assets worth 286.5 billion ROL, up by 10.27 percent against 2002, and a profit-per-share of 44,400 ROL. The Board of Trustees will convene in March to decide how much of the profit is to be disbursed to shareholders, in keeping with the Fund's consistent policy of distributing the returns among investors.

At the end of 2003, F.O.A. had 97,238 investors of whom only 187 were corporate investors. The number of individual investors decreased from 97,250 in mid-2003 to 97,051 in end-2003.

The Fund has investments in bank deposits, T-bills and shares. Sources within the management of "S.A.F.I. Invest" claim that last year's investment in "Banca Transilvania" shares yielded very good returns.

F.O.A. also holds shares in the five financial investment firms (S.I.F.s) and in The National Petroleum Company - Petrom. The unlisted share portfolio mainly includes shares in "Elvila," "Libra Bank," and "The Maritime Commodities Exchange" (Bursa Maritima de Marfuri) Constanta.

Towards the end of last year, F.O.A. transferred 12 billion ROL to "Marmura" Bucharest and pledged to transfer another 15 billion ROL by the end of May 2004. These amounts are needed to cover losses made in past years and thus keep "Marmura" from going bankrupt.