Bogdan Tudorache

Franklin Templeton announced that the Fund’s share price has reached a record high of RON 1.0150 on Thursday, 30 May 2019, which means it finally achieved, and slightly exceeded the nominal value. The price obtained from the market is up 15% from RON 0.8830 per share, the closing price registered at the end of 2018 and 138% from the RON 0.4270, the closing price at the end of 2011, the year when the Fund was listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange.

Commenting on the Fund’s share price reaching the current level, Johan Meyer, CEO of Franklin Templeton Investments Limited and Portfolio Manager of Fondul Proprietatea, said: “The RON 1.00 price is the nominal value which the Romanian State set for the compensation of Romanian individuals who could not receive in kind the properties lost during the communist regime, prior to the Fund being listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. We are extremely pleased to see that many years of hard work and dedication to the creation of shareholder value is being reflected in the market price of the Fund. In addition, we have also distributed RON 1.1696/share in cash through dividends and returns of capital, between September 2010 when Franklin Templeton started its mandate and present, including the cash dividend to be paid at the beginning of July.

Johan Meyer added, “Our strategy in managing the Fund has been successful over time and we will continue to look out for the best interest of all our shareholders, old and new, by sparing no efforts in supporting the implementation of corporate governance legislation in Romania, by advocating for the listing of SOEs, and by executing corporate actions aimed at reducing the share price discount to the net asset value (NAV).”

Since the Fund Manager took over the management of the Fund, it has accomplished the following achievements:

• The share price has consistently been on an upwards trend, with a total return of over 165% since the Fund was listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in January 2011.
• The total return of the Fund’s NAV / share has been 84% since December 2010.
• The trading discount between the Fund’s share price and its NAV per share has gone down from an average of roughly 55.7% in 2011 to a year-to-date level of 35.3% and reached a record low of 20.08% in April 2015.
• Over the past eight years, the Fund has distributed to the shareholders of the Fund a total of RON 11.95 billion (USD 3.27 billion). As such, the Fund has distributed to shareholders RON 1.1696/share, which amounts to roughly RON 6.32 billion, through just dividends and capital returns.
• In addition, the Fund has repurchased over 45.7% of the Fund’s initial shares, or 6.29 billion shares, through 10 regular buyback programmes as well as 5 tenders, with an overall value of RON 5.63 billion.