The Fund’s share price registered a strong performance in 2021

By rbj
Fondul Proprietatea (hereinafter “The Fund”) published today its financial results for 2021 and would like to share the following highlights:
-The Fund’s share price registered a strong performance in 2021, and for the first time since the listing on the Bucharest and London Stock Exchanges, traded at a premium versus the NAV. The share price at the end of 2021 was RON 1.99 per share. On BVB, the share price traded between a discount to the NAV of 19.76 % and a premium to the NAV of 5.25 %2. As at the end of the year, the share price was trading at a discount of 3.83%2.
-The NAV total return in 2021 was 47.8%, the total return for the local shares was 48.5%, while the total return for the GDRs was 42.0%. Since the start of the calculation of the Fund’s performance, the NAV total return was 257.24%, while the total return for local shares was 569.47%, and 224.77% for the GDRs.
-The total amount of gross dividend income recorded by the Fund in 2021 is RON 655.1 million, and the most significant amounts relate to Hidroelectrica SA (RON 456.0 million) and OMV Petrom SA (RON 122.8 million).
-The Fund recorded an audited net profit for the financial year ended 31 December 2021 of RON 5,012,644,707. The main contributor to the profit in 2021 was the net unrealized gain from equity investments at fair value through profit or loss amounting to RON 4,591.1million, generated by OMV Petrom SA as a result of the positive evolution of this company’s share price during 2021 (increase of RON 537.1 million, share price increase of 37.3%) and by the increase in the value of unlisted holdings in the portfolio following the valuation update process (mainly due to Hidroelectrica SA, that registered an increase in valuation of RON 3,912.0 million).
-As at 31 December 2021, the Fund reclassified as non-current assets held for sale the part of the holding in OMV Petrom SA subject to a bookbuild offering. The sale was completed on 19 January 2022 for 2,275,000,000 shares representing approximately 57% of Fund’s holding in OMV Petrom SA and the gross proceeds received from the disposal amounted to RON 978,250,000.
-The decrease in liquid assets by 54.2% during 2021 is due to the cash outflows related to the two dividend distributions paid to shareholders in June and August 2021, net of by the cash inflow from the collections of dividends from portfolio companies.
-Other liabilities have significantly increased compared to 31 December 2020 due to the increase of the amounts payable to shareholders generated by the third special dividend distributions approved on 15 December 2021. Payment to shareholders started on 18 February 2022.
Launched in December 2005, Fondul Proprietatea (“the Fund”) was established to compensate Romanians whose properties were confiscated by the former communist government. Following an international tender announced in December 2008, Franklin Templeton Investments was officially appointed as investment manager and sole administrator of the Fund on 29 September 2010.
The Fund is an alternative investment fund and its investment objective is the maximization to shareholders and the increase of the net asset value per share via investments mainly in Romanian equities and equity-linked securities. The Fund listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on 25 January 2011 and on the Specialist Fund Market of the London Stock Exchange by means of global depositary receipts (“GDRs”) on 29 April 2015.
Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN] is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 165 countries. Franklin Templeton’s mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company brings extensive capabilities in equity, fixed income, multi-asset solutions and alternatives. With offices in more than 30 countries and approximately 1,300 investment professionals, the California-based company has over 70 years of investment experience and approximately $1,521.8 billion in assets under management as of 31 January 2022.
Franklin Templeton established an office in Bucharest in May 2010, with a team of 32 employees, including 6 locally based investment professionals who are further supported by the over 40 portfolio managers and analysts of the wider Templeton Emerging Markets team.
Starting with 1 April 2016, in view of complying with the EU Directive 2011/61 on alternative investment fund managers, the Fund is managed by Franklin Templeton International Services S.À R.L. (“FTIS/ Fund Manager”).