U.S. hedge fund Elliott Associates has sold a 1 percent stake in Romanian Fondul Proprietatea (FP) for some EUR 31.2 million (RON 139 million), via the buy-back  programme launched by the fund.

Elliott Associates sold the shares through Manchester Securities Corp and Beresford Energy Corp.

Manchester Securities Corporation sold 124.7 million shares for some EUR 28 million (RON 124.7 milion), while Beresford Energy Corp. sold 14.3 million shares for around EUR 3.2 million (RON 14.3 million).

Following these transactions, Elliott Associates’ ownership in Fondul Proprietatea should drop to less than 17 percent.

Fondul Proprietatea carried out a buy-back tender offer between October 15 and November 14 for the fund’s shares, amounting to some EUR 135 million (RON 600 million).

In the tender, the investors have placed a total of 3,384 subscription orders for packages  that represented 76.34 percent of the fund’s shares, according to local Wall-street.ro. The offer was oversubscribed by 17.5 times.

Fondul Proprietatea was created in 2005 as a joint stock company with a special purpose to provide compensation to the persons whose real estate assets had been confiscated by the Romanian state during the communist regime and who can no longer receive restitution in kind. The Romanian investment fund posted a profit of around EUR 128 million in 2011.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com