The shareholders of Fondul Proprietatea (BVB: FP), the Romanian closed-end restitution fund, have opted for the Government's proposal for a single listing of the shares of Hidroelectrica on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) pursuant to the "secondary public offering" of FP's 19.9% stake.

According to the results of the shareholder meeting on November 15, the shareholders have not approved the proposal drafted by the FP's manager, Franklin Templeton, for the dual listing of Hidroelectrica's shares.

"We may have different opinions when it comes to the stock exchange listing, but we always have to make decisions in the interests of the shareholders and [of the] the FP manager in order for the process to go smoothly. We have a clear mandate from shareholders that the listing should take place at the BVB," said FP's Johan Meyer, CEO of FTIS Bucharest Branch and the Portfolio Manager of Fondul Proprietatea, according to Wall-Street.ro.

However, he avoided disclosing how much of the 19.9% stake in Hidroelectrica would eventually be sold. But at least the dispute over where Hidroelectrica's shares would be traded after the IPO has probably ended.

Hidroelectrica itself, controlled by the Government, has previously opted for the single listing of its shares at BVB, but Franklin Templeton has constantly argued for dual listing (or even more exotic alternatives such as a bilateral deal) with a view of maximising the price of the shares. The local market wouldn't be deep enough for the 20% Hidroeelctrica stake, Templeton argued.

But the pension funds interested in the shares are already significant shareholders of Fondul Proprietatea, and this contributed to the outcome of the vote in the shareholder meeting on November 15. According to the most recent official data cited by Profit.ro, Romanian institutional investors hold more than 40% of the voting rights in Fondul Proprietatea as shareholders, while the Romanian individual shareholders - almost 23%.

Hidroelectrica's net profit increased by 37.4% YoY to RON 3.52 bln (EUR 700 mln) in January-September due to the doubling of sales prices, which compensated for the massive reduction ( by about a quarter) of the company's electricity production.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Hidroelectrica)