Investment management company CA IB Asset Management held by German HVB Group will launch a number of funds in Romania that invest on the foreign capital markets.
These would be about the first funds in Romania to invest abroad, as the approximately 20 mutual funds on the market at the moment are exclusively investing on the domestic market. HVB is also the first major international financial group that comes in Romania to get an investment management business rolling.
CA IB Asset Management's intention is to launch three funds resembling the structure of those already on the Romanian market, which will, however, invest abroad. One of the funds should be a monetary fund, setting out to provide similar yields to those of the banking deposits, although under high liquidity conditions, a fund that chiefly invests in bonds and a fund that chiefly invests in shares. CA IB's next step will be investments on the domestic market.
Florin Dolea, the head of the management company says each of the three funds will be built by the model of a fund administered by HVB Austria's fund manager, Capital Invest, and the funds in Romania will also benefit by input from the analysts in Vienna. Capital Invest currently runs more than 200 investment funds.
The launch of the funds requires clarification of legislative issues about the investments on international markets. "We are faced with legislative problems, especially related to the National Securities Commission (CNVM) and to the National Bank. The law says investments can be made on international markets, but they need to be cleared by CNVM; the same goes for the depository bank, which needs to be prepared to work with international markets," Florin Dolea says. "We're hoping we could launch the first fund by mid this year," he added.
The investment management industry has generated a growing interest among foreign investors over the last twelve months due to the upcoming development of the privately managed pension system.
The legislation in effect at the moment allows foreign companies to sell in Romania shares of the funds they manage, without establishing a management company as is the case of Anglo-Swiss financial group MAN, one of the largest hedge fund managers in the world. CA IB Asset Management's head, however, says HVB Group's main intent is to develop a business in Romania.
CA IB Asset Management Romania is held 95% by Capital Invest, HVB's investment manager in Austria, with the remaining 5% held by HVB Romania.
vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro
