He received Fondul Proprietatea shares in 2006 as compensation for the Resita steel plant that belonged to his father and was seized by the communist regime. The same year, the heirs of another large family of industrialists, Malaxa, got shares in the fund as compensation for the factories Faur and Republica in Bucharest. The stake received by Malaxa and Ausnit heirs was worth a total 1.1 billion lei (EUR260 million), namely 8% in Fondul Proprietatea’s capital. Thus, the Malaxa and Ausnit heirs became the largest private shareholders in the Fund.
Ausnit is entitled to RON126 million in the fund’s shares for Titan Nadrag Calan metallurgical plants, but he fears he may never receive these shares as the government’s stake (less than 10%) is about to be exhausted and as ANRP, the authority in charge with distributing the shares, unjustifiably delays the distribution, he adds.
Steven Ausnit is due to receive around 250 million Fund shares, namely a 1.8% stake. Tens of thousands of people who submitted their compensation claims with ANRP are in the same situation.
Under Law 247 of 2005, the government can expand the Fund’s share capital by adding new assets. In 2005, the fund received from the government, as share capital, stakes in the most valuable companies in the economy and also sums generated from the recovery of arrears from foreign trade operations carried out during the communist regime. The stakes were enough to provide compensation of around EUR3 billion to just 4,000 persons, whilst compensation claims amount to EUR21 billion.
Mark Meyer, the lawyer representing Malaxa and Ausnit families and a partner in Rubin Meyer Doru & Trandafir law firm, said he would meet the finance minister to discuss the adding of new assets to the Fondul Proprietatea’s share capital.
For the time being, it is not clear what will happen once the government stops being a Fondul Proprietatea shareholder. Adding new assets to the fund’s capital will not be easy as the fund is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the rest of shareholders should come up with money to preserve their stakes. Moreover, the fund’s manager proposed a secondary listing of the fund on the Warsaw stock exchange to shareholders, which Malaxa and Ausnit heirs are supporting.