The shares of the Property Fund are now trading for as little as 7% of their nominal value, thus putting the fund’s value at 265 million euros, less than its stake in Petrom.
The postponement of the floatation of the Property Fund, the biggest business of the next few years, has led to the emergence of the biggest black market of securities since the days of the coupons granted during the mass-privatisation programme and traded thereafter, a market where investors with cash can buy some valuable assets extremely cheap, while those that are supposed to benefit from the fund, namely the people reimbursed for the buildings confiscated by the communist regime end up practically giving away the shares they got from the state.
The shares of the Property Fund have been traded through "classifieds" for a year, without any transparency in terms of price, and without any rules, which led to deals closed at 7-8% of the nominal value, according to the data collected from those to make or broker such deals.
"High volumes were traded last week at 7.2% of the nominal value. I bought 30 million shares at 7.2% and 11 million at 7.5% on Friday," says Stefan Terziu, a former broker who is now brokering transactions with Property Fund shares.
Therefore those who were reimbursed with shares worth 1 RON in par value, are now selling them at 0.07 – 0.08 RON. At this price, the Property Fund is valued at about 265 million euros, less than the 20% stake it holds in Petrom, which is now worth 400 million euros on the Stock Exchange. In addition, the Property Fund owns significant stakes in the major energy companies such as Romgaz, Transgaz, Hidroelectrica, Nuclearelectrica and Transelectrica, which remain valuable, despite the economic crisis.
Few of those that allow themselves to be convinced to sell at 7-8% of the par value are aware of how much the fund’s ass
