The manager of the Proprietatea Fund, Franklin Templeton, yesterday announced that it has received a request to summon the General Shareholder Meeting of the Proprietatea Fund from Manchester Securities Corporation, part of American hedge fund Elliott Associates.
Through Manchester Securities, Elliott is proposing that, in order to encourage the manager of the manager to sell some of the Fund's stakes, Franklin Templeton be awarded an additional fee of 1.5% of the proceeds earned from the sale of assets of the Proprietatea Fund and subsequently distributed to the shareholders, between 2012 and 2013. In 2014 the additional fee would be reduced to 1%.
"The beginning of the end" for the "Proprietatea Fund", like many call it, was started by the request of the American fund "Elliott Associates", the largest shareholder of the Proprietatea Fund, to increase the "compensation" of manager Franklin Templeton, if the latter accelerates the sale of the Fund's interests in various companies.
Leaving aside the uncertain situation of Franklin Templeton as manager of the Proprietatea Fund, since the court of Bucharest annulled the decision of the shareholders appointing it on that position, the shareholders seem to consider that selling the Fund piece by piece, they would make more than by holding its stock.
At any rate, this seems to be the case of the companies listed in the portfolio, under the current market conditions.
The companies in the portfolio of the Proprietatea Fund (ed. note: considered liquid, on December 31st, 2010) are worth 2.8 billion lei (ed. note: at Wednesday's market value, or, in some cases, at the last trading price). Taking into consideration the price of the shares of the Proprietatea Fund, their quota in the total portfolio of the Fund, of approximately 32% amounts only to 2.3 billion lei.
Of course, the amount