Which companies will be included in the National Investment Fund?

• Adriean Videanu says that the new Fund will include the minority holdings owned by the Ministry of the Economy and by the Authority for State Assets Recovery (AVAS)

• Sebastian Vlădescu says that the National Investment Fund (FIN) will finance infrastructure investments exclusively

Dozens of minority interests of the Ministry of the Economy and a few hundreds of AVAS holdings will enter the portfolio of the future National Investment Fund (FIN), one of the anti-crisis measures proposed by the current government.

Sebastian Vlădescu, the minister of Finance, yesterday said that the value of the assets of the new Fund has not yet been set, but it will finance infrastructure projects exclusively.

Last week, Adriean Videanu, the Minister of the Economy, said that the FIN could become operational in a few weeks: "We are considering endowing this fund with the minority stakes held by the Ministry of the Economy and by AVAS. We are not going to liquidate those holdings".

While the list of minority holdings of AVAS is lengthy, if not spectacular, (available at www.bursa.ro), the interests of the Ministry of the Economy are quite impressive: ranging from holdings in Petrom, to those in former gas and electricity distribution companies, to defense companies.

In the coming period, the Government will set the list of minority holdings that will be included in the future investment fund, and perform their evaluation.

Two other investment projects were announced last year: a sixth SIF (Financial Investment Company), which was intended to include only the minority holdings of AVAS, as well as a sovereign fund which would include all the interests of the Romanian state in various companies.

Both projects were abandoned, and the Government opted to improve the former. A different kind of SIF, that would include the minority stakes of the Ministry of the Economy, instead of just those of AVAS, with its main stated objective being to support infrastructure projects.