SIF Banat-Crisana sells $1m stake

SIF Banat-Crisana is the first financial investment company to sell the banking shares it inherited from the Private Ownership Funds. In several transactions on the stock exchange last week, the company sold a stake of 0.08% in BRD-SocGen for almost one million dollars.

Shares in banks held by SIFs have been the most important sources of profit in recent years owing to dividends paid out on a regular basis by the banks. These shares are the first thing investors have in mind when they buy SIF stock, accounting for about half their assets. At the time they were set up, the SIFs each owned 6% in BCR, 5% in BRD, 6% in Banc Post and 2% in Eximbank.

Representatives of SIF Banat-Crisana say they sold part of their shares in BRD in order to register profits in the bookkeeping, as well as reduce exposure to BRD. “We want to set things right both in terms of profits and CNVM regulations related to the maximum exposure level. We currently have an exposure of about 20% of the value of our assets to BRD due to the fact that we also own bonds issued by this bank,” stated Catalin Dobrescu, operations manager with SIF Banat-Crisana. Dobrescu was unwilling to specify whether the company plans to sell any more BRD shares.

SIF Banat-Crisana sold the shares at an average price of 27,191 ROL and received 30 billion ROL from buyers. The sums received by the company are recorded as profits, with the face value for one BRD share standing at 3,000 ROL. The company manages assets worth 4,987 billion ROL (121 billion euros) and has a stock market capitalisation of 107 million euros.
vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro