December 15 (SeeNews) - Romanian property restitution fund Fondul Proprietatea [BSE:FP] 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, the fund's manager, Franklin Templeton Investment Management said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange on Friday.
Under this tender offer, the fund intends to repurchase up to 1.2 billion shares, both in the form of shares and global depositary receipts (GDRs) from its shareholders.
It is expected that full details of the tender offer, including pricing, will be announced if and when the tender offer is implemented and approval is received from the ASF, which is expected to occur within 10 business days according to the regulations in force.
The investment manager has engaged WOOD & Company Financial Services as intermediary in relation to the purchase of shares and intends to engage Jefferies International Limited and WOOD & Company Financial Services, as dealer managers and The Bank of New York Mellon as tender agent in relation to the purchase of GDRs.
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.
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.
At the beginning of November, Romanian power supplier and distributor Electrica [BSE:EL] concluded the purchase of minority stakes in four of its subsidiaries held by Fondul Proprietatea for a total of 752 million lei.
In September, the fund has sold a 2.5% shareholding interest in OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP] for 399.85 million lei. Now, Fondul owns 9.9985% of OMV Petrom's shares.
In mid-August, it said it has started procedures for a potential disposal of its ownership interest in Enel Romania and Engie Romania. The fund has been trying to sell these assets since 2012 in an effort to reduce the number of unlisted companies in its portfolio.
Fondul Proprietatea's shares traded 1.43% higher at 0.8520 lei by 1152 CET on Friday on the BVB.
(1 euro =4.6346 Romanian lei)
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