The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization in the world, has become a shareholder in the Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP), local financial newspaper Ziarul Financiar has found.

The foundation has been set up by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest, and his wife Melinda. One of the foundation’s biggest backers is famous investment manager Warren Buffett. The foundation works to reduce inequities around the world and focuses on improving health and alleviating extreme poverty. The foundation’s assets, which were worth USD 43.4 billion at the end of 2014, are managed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.

The trust invests its assets in equity and bonds issued by companies, investment funds, and governments all over the world. At the end of 2014, the trust owned 66 million Fondul Proprietatea shares, namely a 0.6% stake in the fund, according to the 2014 annual financial report. The investment was estimated at USD 12 million and was the trust’s only holding in Romania and one of the few in Eastern Europe (the trust also held Polish state bonds).

Fondul Proprietatea’s shares are the most liquid on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. By investing in Fondul Proprietatea, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust has indirectly bought shares in important local companies such as OMV Petrom, Hidroelectrica, Romgaz, Bucharest Airports, Romanian Post, as well as BRD and Banca Transilvania, all part of Fondul Proprietatea’s portfolio.

Fondul Proprietatea was established in 2005 as a way to compensate former owners whose properties had been expropriated by the Communist regime. The fund listed its shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in January 2011 and in April 2015 it was also listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The US hedge fund Elliott Associates, managed by activist investor Paul Elliott Singer, is the biggest shareholder in the Romanian fund, with a 20% stake.

Fondul Proprietatea has a EUR 2.05 billion market capitalization and is managed by American group Franklin Templeton, one of the biggest asset managers in the world.

Time to buy again? Elliott ups stake in Romanian Fondul Proprietatea

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Bill Gates on Facebook)