Heirs of steel industrialist Max Ausnit fear of losing compensation shares at Proprietatea Fund

Newsroom 08/09/2011 | 16:10

Steven and Nuria Gimeno Ausnit, heirs of Max Ausnit, founder of Titan Nadarg Calan metallurgical factories, argue that Romanian does not hold enough shares in the Proprietatea Fund to compensate entitled persons, as the current stake that Romania holds through the Ministry of Public Finance will soon exhaust. In the absence of shares, compensation funds will have to be disbursed from the state budget. The number of people eligible to receive compensation through Proprietatea Funds is in the hundreds of thousands, according to data from the Romanian government.

At end-July 2011, the Romanian state held a stake of 12.39 percent in the capital of Proprietatea Fund. According to data published in August, Proprietatea Fund had a subscribed capital of RON 13.77 billion and a paid-up capital of RON 13.40 billion. The Romanian Ministry of Public Finance holds an 8.71 percent of share capital and only 6.17 percent of paid-up share capital at end-August.

Launched in December 2005, Proprietatea Fund was established to compensate Romanians whose properties were confiscated by the former communist government. An international tender was announced in December 2008, and Franklin Templeton won the EUR 3.77 billion Proprietatea Fund mandate in July 2009 after being selected from among seven global asset managers. Franklin Templeton officially took over as investment manager and sole administrator of the Fund on 29 September 2010.

Max Ausnit, known as the “Iron King”, born 1887, founded the Titan Nadarg Calan metallurgical factories in Galati, the steel foundry at Otelu Rosu. Ausnit also acquired the bankrupt steel mills Uzinele and Domeniile de Resita, returning them to profit. These businesses employed approximately 27.000 people.

Ovidiu Posirca