October 31 (SeeNews) - The shareholders of Romanian property restitution fund Fondul Proprietatea [BSE:FP] approved on Monday the continuation of the mandate of Franklin Templeton as sole administrator and fund manager.
Franklin Templeton Investment Management Ltd. United Kingdom will continue to act as the alternative investment fund manager and sole director of Fondul Proprietatea, the board of nominees said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, following a shareholders meeting held on Monday.
The fund's shareholders also voted for a decrease of subscribed share capital from 8.56 billion lei ($2.08 billion/1.9 billion euro) to 5.74 billion lei, through the decrease of the nominal value of the fund's shares.
After the share capital decrease, the subscribed share capital of Fondul Proprietatea shall have a value of 5.74 billion lei being divided in 10.07 bllion shares, each having a nominal value of 0.57 lei, according to the statement.
The mechanics of the decrease in share capital incorporates two operations (coverage of accumulated accounting losses as reflected in Fondul's financial statements at 31 December 2015 in amount of 2.47 billion lei, and the return to the shareholders of a part of their contributions, proportionally with their participation to the paid-up share capital).
Last week, Fondul Proprietatea reduced its share capital by cancelling 161.6 million of its own shares. Following the capital decrease, Fondul Proprietatea's share capital would be divided into 10.85 million shares with a face value of 0.85 lei each, the fund said in a statement back then.
Fondul Proprietatea's current market capitalisation stands at 8.83 billion lei.
Earlier this month, the fund sold a 6.4% stake in oil and gas group OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP] for 682 million lei in four separate transactions, data from the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) showed. Before the sale Fondul Proprietatea owned 19% of OMV Petrom.
In September, Fondul Proprietatea closed its sixth share buy-back programme and opened its seventh one.
In June, Fondul Proprietatea sold its entire stake in the Romanian units of German utility E.ON - Distributie and Energie. At the end of April, it sold its entire remaining 5.85% stake in natural gas producer Romgaz [BSE:SNG] for $137.2 million (120.6 million euro).
In 2015, the fund sold its stakes in real estate company Primcom, metal forging company Forsev, market researcher SIFI CJ Agro, Electroconstructia Elco Cluj, and Petrotel Lukoil.
Blue chip Fondul Proprietatea was set up in 2005 to compensate pre-Communist era owners whose property was nationalised.
The fund's shares traded up 0.12% at 0.8060 lei by 1702 CET on Monday.
(1 euro = 4.5057 Romanian lei)
OMV Petrom SA is among the biggest companies in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here