Start of rush for Fondul Proprietatea dividends

Local investors and foreign investment funds have been caught in the rush of the over 1.1 billion-RON dividends of Fondul Proprietatea (Property Fund – FP) and are making last minute share purchases. Left out of this, however, are the former owners who do not know how they can get the dividends, even though the Fund was created precisely to compensate them.

The dividends of Fondul Proprietatea are the hottest topic of the moment, considering the 1.1 billion RON to be disbursed to the Romanian state, which owns 49% in the Fund, and to the more than 4,000 private shareholders are a record high for the Romanian economy.
With less than one week left until September 27, the shareholder registration cut-off date, the shares of Fondul Proprietatea have become increasingly more coveted and some people are willing to go as far as to trade apartments in downtown Bucharest, plots of land or cars for FP shares.
“I’ve got some plots I bought in the past few years that I want to get rid of. The land market is frozen now and I’d rather exchange a plot in the built-up area of Constanța for shares in the Fund that I can sell,” said Cristi, who posted an ad for sale on the Fondul Proprietatea web forum.