February 15 (SeeNews) - Romanian property restitution fund Fondul Proprietatea [BSE:FP] said on Wednesday it swung to a net profit of 447 million lei ($104.5 million/99.1 million euro) last year, from a 565.1 million lei net loss in 2015.
"The main contribution to the profit recorded in 2016 was the net gain on disposal of equity investments available for sale, which was partially offset by the net loss from equity investments at fair value through profit or loss, impairment losses on equity investments available for sale and by the loss from disposal of non-current assets held for sale", Proprietatea said in a filing to the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.
Shareholders’ equity totalled 11.38 billion lei as of December 31, 2016, down 5.5% compared to end-2015. The fund's net asset value fell to some 11.42 billion lei at the end of 2016 from 12.08 billion lei a year earlier.
During 2016, Proprietatea bought back some 821.4 million of its own shares within the sixth and seventh buy-back programmes (out of which 625 million were ordinary shares and 196.3 million shares corresponding to GDRs), representing 7.3% of the total issued shares as at end-2015, for 673.9 million lei.
In October, Proprietatea shareholders approved the eighth buy-back programme and the continuation of the mandate of Franklin Templeton as sole administrator and fund manager.
Fondul Proprietatea's current market capitalisation stands at 9 billion lei.
In October, the fund sold a 6.4% stake in oil and gas group OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP] for 682 million lei in four separate transactions, data from the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) showed. Before the sale Fondul Proprietatea owned 19% of OMV Petrom.
Also last year, Fondul Proprietatea sold its entire stake in the Romanian units of German utility E.ON - Distributie and Energie, and its entire remaining 5.85% stake in natural gas producer Romgaz [BSE:SNG] for $137.2 million (120.6 million euro).
In 2015, the fund sold its stakes in real estate company Primcom, metal forging company Forsev, market researcher SIFI CJ Agro, Electroconstructia Elco Cluj, and Petrotel Lukoil.
Blue chip Fondul Proprietatea was set up in 2005 to compensate pre-Communist property owners for their assets nationalised after 1945.
The fund's shares were traded 0.34% higher at 0.8970 lei by 1647 CET on Wednesday.
(1 euro = 4.5057 Romanian lei)
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