Liquidating Investment Funds proves tougher than creating them

Out of those 26 Investment Funds (IF) to be liquidated till July 1, 2008, only five have ended the procedure of estranging assets. The reason is the low demand, Info-Prim Neo reports. The IFs having ended the procedure of estranging assets are now distributing the obtained money to stockholders, depending on their stock quotas. According to an official from the Financial Market National Commission (FMNC), Raisa Andronic, eight IFs are under the procedure of benevolent liquidation, the decision being taken at stockholders’ assemblies. They have estranged over a half of the total of stock packages in societies with limited responsibility. The amount obtained from selling one stock varies between 0.18 and 1.19 lei. A stockholder rests with a total sum varying from 49 and 320 lei. One of the IFs “Viitorul tau” has already finalized the procedure of benevolent liquidation. It got 11.4 million lei from selling the assets, and now it shares the money to stockholders through Moldinconbank. It also distributes the unsold stocks which total 13.5 million lei, according to the par value. 17 funds are being liquidated following the FMNC’s initiative. The liquidation is done according to the same scenario – all the IF’s stock packages and shares are set for sale. Till April 1, 2008, they sold stocks at a price varying form 0.16 to 2.11 lei apiece. A stockholder averagely rests with an amount varying from 36 to 449 lei. 4 IFs – IncomInvest, Cărpineni Privat Invest, Glor-Invest and MigdalInvest have ended the procedure of estranging assets, as the money will be distributed to shareholders through Investprivatbank the next 4 months. The stockholders of the other IFs being liquidated by force will get the money they are entitled to after July 1, 2008, when their assets are sold out. Initially the term to estrange the stocks and other assets of IFs was set for 1 January 2008. The Parliament prolonged the term till July 1, 2008, in order to let them sell as many as possible stocks from IFfs’ portfolios. As can be noticed, the objective proved impossible, when the stocks belonged to some insolvent and idle companies. Experts believe they will be held as scapegoats for the mistakes committed by IF managers and the mistakes admitted in the high-scale privatization against vouchers. Elena Pui, a board member of the FMNC specifies the IFs under liquidation have over 900,000 stockholders. 32 IFs were registered by the end of 2005, when the IFs’ re-organization began. Six IFs – Mandatar, Asito Invest Prim, Agrofond, Divident, Real Invest and DAAC Hermes transformed into joint stock companies. They were made to buy in stocks from holders at a price not less than 50% of the par value of a stock, or at the cost of the stock on the market. Over 39,000 stockholders applied to sell their stocks (circa 8 % of their total number), which were paid a total of 12.7 million lei. The stockholders, who have not tendered applications to sell their stocks till the due term, have remained stockholders of the stock ventures those six Ifs transformed into.