Templeton ready to intervene to raise price of FP shares

Officials of Franklin Templeton, which manages over 3 billion-euro assets of Fondul Proprietatea, have pledged to do everything they can to see that the price at which Proprietatea will be traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange is as high as possible, and are considering using the option of buying back Fund shares.

On the Fund's Stock Exchange trading price depend the damages due to thousands of former owners who received shares in the Fund in compensation, as well as the profits of hundreds of speculators who bought shares in the fund prior to its listing at prices significantly below the nominal value.

"The estimated date of the Fund's listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange is January 25th. We will do everything in our power to see to it that the Stock Exchange price of Proprietatea shares is as high as possible, but we must not lose sight of the fact that the stock exchange value of the share will also be influenced by the context of the Romanian economy and by Government decisions. If the share is too cheap, we will consider the possibility of the Fund buying back shares," said Greg Konieczny, portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton. He did not provide details on what "too cheap an FP share" means. Fondul Proprietatea has received its shareholders' approval to buy back shares accounting for up to 10% of the 13.77 billion-RON capital. Currently, on the unofficial market, the price of a share is less than 0.5 RON.