Société Générale Romania Fund (SGRF) and Romanian Investment Fund (RIF), two of the leading foreign investment funds in Romania, are planning to extend their life span by two years, so that they will postpone selling their stakes in Romanian companies.
The two funds, whose initial capitalisation was worth more than $40 million each, began investing in Romania in 1997-1998 and should have ceased to exist this year (RIF) and in the spring of 2004 (SGRF).
Even though having sold most of their interests over the last two years, the funds still hold stakes in Orange, LaDorna, Luxten, Megapress, Policolor (SGRF) and Rolast, First Logistic & Distribution, Titan Mar, Tec Miaco, Policolor (RIF).
“We believe the short period of time left until the end of our life span will not allow us to get good terms for our exit. We will therefore request the fund shareholders (foreign financial institutions and individuals i.e.) to extend our life span by two, maybe three years. The signals we’ve got from shareholders so far make us think the proposal will get through,” Ion Florescu, chairman of the Capital company, RIF co-administrator, told Ziarul Financiar.
Razvan Cretu, the investment manager of SGRF (part of the French Société Générale financial group) says the fund is in talks over selling most of its interests, but has not made much progress yet.
“We have various exit options for every company, but the deadline for the sale is not certain in any of the cases. SGRF’s Board of Directors will therefore request its shareholders to extend the life span of the fund by two years. The proposal stands big chances of approval,” Razvan Cretu explained.
SGRF last year sold its interests in Arctic Gaesti (25.48%), Dorna Apemin (20%) and Electroaparataj Bucharest (15.01%). Its top stakes now are Orange (1%), LaDorna (20%), Luxten (14%), Policolor (7.72%) and Megapress (35%). laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro