Julius Baer invested $419 mln on the local stock exchange

The political crisis in this year’s first half did not seem to have frightened the investment fund, which increased its participation in Petrom, Romania’s largest oil and gas group, up to 1.5 percent of the company, owning shares whose value exceeds $167 mln (€118 mln). This is Baer’s largest exposure on the Romanian capital market.

In this year’s first quarter, the fund owned less than one percent of the oil company. The fund controlled 3.16 percent of Petrom shares by the end of the first half, level similar to that registered at the beginning of January.

The value of the shares amounts to $28.48 mln (€20.16 mln). The fund’s acquisitions made in the first half of 2007 also targeted a small share package in BRD-Groupe Societe Generale, the second-largest lender in Romania in terms of assets. Baer now controls a 1.45 percent equity interest, worth up to $95 mln (€67.26 mln). Furthermore, Baer increased its participation in the Impact real estate developer to more than 10 percent of its stock.

According to reports sent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Julius Baer currently controls an 18 percent of Impact’s shares. By the end of April 2007, the three funds administered by Julius Baer owned assets worth over $27.89 billion (€19.74 bln).

According to market brokers, following the U.S. mortgage crisis and Romania’s political problems, large funds did not exit the Romanian market, though their placements in August were lower than the amounts resulted from closing positions for the first time in 2007. Funds withdrew over €21.4 mln in August 2007.

Cutbacks
Large investment funds cut back their activities lately, considering the reduced operations on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) in the past two months, when the U.S. loan crisis began.