January 4 (SeeNews) - Franklin Templeton Investment Management Ltd. United Kingdom Bucharest Branch (FTIML), the manager of Romanian property restitution fund Fondul Proprietatea [BSE:FP], said on Thursday that Johan Meyer will take over as sole lead portfolio manager of the fund.
Meyer will assume the position on April 1, when the current lead portfolio manager, Greg Konieczny, will step down, FTIML said in a press release.
Since November 1, 2016, Meyer has shared management duties with Konieczny, acting as co-portfolio manager of Fondul Proprietatea.
Konieczny will now take over as the director of specialty strategies for the Templeton Emerging Markets Group (TEMG).
"We are very confident that the fund will continue in very capable hands, as Johan has demonstrated strong commitment and dedication in creating value for the fund over the past year. Furthermore, Johan possesses great leadership skills, vast industry expertise, local market understanding and a solid track record which are invaluable to lead our efforts in Romania and internationally”, the fund's board chairman Sorin Mindrutescu said.
Johan Meyer joined Franklin Templeton Investments in 2004. Prior to his role in Romania, he was Managing Director South Africa, and the Director of Africa Strategy for Templeton Emerging Markets Group.
Launched in December 2005, Fondul Proprietatea 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 Investments officially took over as investment manager and sole administrator of the fund on 29 September 2010.
The fund is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, since 2011 and on the Specialist Fund Market of the London Stock Exchange by means of global depositary receipts (GDRs) since 2015.
Franklin Resources is a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment management to retail, institutional and sovereign wealth clients in over 180 countries.
Fondul Proprietatea's net profit increased to 906.4 million lei ($232 million/196 million euro) in the first nine months of 2017, up 59% on the year.
In mid December, the fund said it plans to start a ninth buyback programme for its own shares. The fund has submitted an application for the endorsement of a tender offer for cash of its own shares for approval to the Financial Supervisory Authority of Romania, ASF. Under this tender offer, the fund intends to repurchase up to 1.2 billion shares, both in the form of shares and GDRs from its shareholders.
Fondul Proprietatea completed on November 10 its eighth share buyback programme during which it has repurchased a total of 141.8 million shares for 122.3 million lei.
Fondul Proprietatea's shares traded 0.67% lower at 0.8840 lei by 0943 CET on Thursday on the BVB.
(1 euro =4.6412 Romanian lei)
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