A group of retail investors, along with three funds from Slovenia, imposed their position at the September 29 shareholder meeting of Fondul Proprietatea (FP), dismissing the head of the Board of Nominees and deciding to resume from scratch the procedures for selecting a new fund manager, scrapping the past procedures that resulted in the selection of ROCA FP.
Former head of the Board of Nominees, Ilinca von Derenthall, accused the Slovene funds of “hostile takeover,” according to Bursa.ro.
“As a former investment banker, I can only congratulate the Slovenian minority shareholders who, with the help of retail shareholders, orchestrated, in my opinion, a hostile takeover of Fondul Proprietatea as per the book. And I look forward to seeing which provisional members will be nominated for the vacant positions on the Board of Nominees, how they will consider whether or not to support or receive access to strategic companies of the Romanian state, and what their relationship with the minority shareholders will be,” von Derenthall said.
Axor Holding, Equinox, and Intus Invest are the three Slovenian investment funds that recently entered Fondul Proprietatea’s shareholder base and which, one day before the reference date of the shareholder meeting, held 7.3% of the FP’s voting rights.
The majority of shareholders formed around the three funds from Slovenia decided to cancel the selection process for the appointment of a new fund manager (to replace Franklin Templeton) that began in the latter part of 2023, and resulted with the Board of Nominees choosing the partnership between IRE AIFM HUB from Luxembourg and Impetum Management – known as ROCA FP – as the preferred candidate for managing the fund.
The result of the selection process was harshly criticised by a group of shareholders, who accused the procedure of being carried out in a non-transparent manner. They requested an audit to show how the amount of RON 5.5 million related to the entire process was spent.
Under these circumstances, the shareholders decided on September 29 to extend the mandate of the current administrator, Franklin Templeton, and to initiate, by the Board of Nominees, a new process of selecting another administrator, based on the condition that the selected entity manages assets at least equal to the value of FP’s assets.
The selection process will not exceed 150 days, the costs of the procedure being limited to a maximum of RON 1.5 million, as requested by the Ministry of Finance, which requested the inclusion of this item on the agenda.
iulian@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Timon Schneider/Dreamstime.com)
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