Property Fund to float by September

The procedures will be completed by August 31, 2008, reported Mediafax.
The provisions are included in a draft emergency ordinance to modify the legislation on the Property Fund.
The fund was set up in 2005 to offer compensation to the former owners of property expropriated by the communist regime, who can no longer regain their possessions in kind.
Owners will be able to choose either FP shares or cash, if the real estate asset value does not exceed EUR 200,000, or a combination of the two.
Property Fund shares cannot be sold on the Stock Exchange until this December if deadlines in the draft ordinance and legal authorization time limits are met. Until then, former owners cannot sell the shares granted to them as compensation.
Steps are also being taken to select the company that will be responsible for the fund's management, which has so far been the responsibility of the Finance Ministry.
The government will endorse, via a resolution, the regulation for the organization of the international bid to select the company within two years. “The membership of the commission in charge of the selection process will be set under a Prime Minister's order,” reads the draft emergency ordinance.
Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said last week he expects the Finance Ministry to present suggestions for the modification of FP regulations by the end of the month. Two weeks ago, Tariceanu had requested that the ministry urgently clarify the fund's situation after the European Court for Human Rights ruled that the compensation system did not work, saying that repayment securities offered by the FP were not proportional to the loss.

Ana-Maria David