Romanian Property Restitution Fund Names Ionut Popescu New Director General

Popescu will replace Daniela Lulache, Proprietatea said in a statement on Tuesday.

Popescu was Finance Minister from December 2004 until August 2005 in the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu.

The restitution fund also said it had raised its net profit projection for this year to 709.3 million lei ($240 million/168.6 million euro) from 212 million lei, following the sale of the 30% stakes it held in each of CEZ Distributie and CEZ Vanzare to Czech power group CEZ for a combined 229.6 million euro ($327 million).

The Proprietatea fund, set up in 2005, was designed to compensate pre-communist owners whose property can not be restored in its original form. It held stakes in 88 companies from the banking, energy, telecommunications, utility and other industries at the end of last year.

(1 euro = 4.2057 Romanian lei)