The BET Patria - Tradeville ETF fund managed by SAI Patria Asset Management SA, a member company of the Patria Bank Group, recently announced a lowering of fees in a message sent to investors. 

The Patria-Tradeville financial instrument in question is the first exchange-traded fund in Romania and the largest ETF that invests in Romanian stocks. Its strategy is to replicate the structure and performance of the main BET index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB). Until recently, it was the sole ETF accessible to retail investors, but it received competition with the launch of InterCapital’s BET ETF.

Nevertheless, the Patria - Tradeville ETF remains popular with investors due to its past performance. The fund's total net assets increased by 80.9% in 2024, from RON 170.5 million at the beginning of the year to RON 308.5 million as of May 29.

In the last three years ending with April 30, 2024, the total net assets of the BET Patria - Tradeville ETF fund increased by 1,387.3% (representing an increase of over 14 times), compared to an average growth of 114.3% in the net assets of open-ended equity funds in Romania and compared to an average decrease of 5.3% in the net assets of all open-ended funds in Romania during the same period, according to data published by the Romanian Fund Managers Association (AAF). 

As a result of the fund's development and the increase in its assets, the manager announced the following fee reductions applicable to the BET Patria - Tradeville ETF fund:

• The management fee paid by the fund is reduced from 0.0750%/month to 0.0625%/month, calculated daily on the total asset value for the day the calculation is made. 
• The asset custody fee paid by the fund is reduced from 0.015%/month to 0.014%/month applied to the average monthly net asset value. 
• The settlement fee for stock transactions on the Bucharest Stock Exchange is modified from 0.010% to 0.008% applied to the gross value of each transaction. 
• The custody fee for financial instruments is modified from 0.05%/year to 0.04%/year applied to the average monthly portfolio value of financial instruments in custody. 
• The trading fee paid by the fund for transactions carried out on the BVB is reduced from 0.20% to 0.18%, applied to the value of each transaction. 

All of the above changes come into effect from July 1, 2024. As a result of these reductions, the estimated annual impact of the fund's total costs is 1.35%/year, of which the management cost (0.75%/year) together with other operating costs represent 1.13%, and the trading costs 0.22%. 

The number of investors in the BET Patria - Tradeville ETF fund was 20,683 at the end of April 2024, an increase of 35.6% compared to the end of last year and a 1,107.4% increase over the last three years. The number of investors in the fund represented 23.2% of the total number of investors in open-ended equity funds in Romania as of April 30, 2024. 

The performance brought by the fund to investors, measured as the variation in the fund unit value, was +48.2% in the last 12 months ending May 28, 2024, and +76.5% in the last three years ending on the same date. The presented performances are net, after the costs paid by the fund.

Investors in the fund do not pay any fees to the fund or its manager; they only pay the trading fees to the intermediary through which they make stock exchange transactions. The dividends received by the fund from the issuers of the shares in its portfolio are reinvested by it and contribute to the increase in its performance. The fund does not pay tax on the dividends received, being able to reinvest the gross dividends received in full. 

The BET Patria - Tradeville ETF fund has been listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) since 2012 and is traded on the exchange under the symbol TVBETETF. The minimum investment in the fund is the equivalent of one fund unit, with a value of approximately RON 27.5 as of May 28, 2024. The fund's depositary is BRD – Groupe Societe Generale. 

radu@romania-insider.com

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