Mark Mobius hopes for Property Fund listing by September

The Property Fund could finally be listed within the next six months. Mark Mobius, the executive president of Templeton Asset Management and one of the professionals from Franklin Templeton who will be involved in managing the local Property Fund, made the announcement on a visit to Romania last week. He said the fund’s long awaited stock exchange listing could happen by September if Franklin Templeton is allowed to start its administrator activities by July this year.

The firm is also planning to list the Property Fund on the London Stock Exchange, but not at the same time as its Bucharest floatation. The London listing should happen after an IPO. Shares could come either from the Finance Ministry selling packages, or from issuing new titles through a share capital increase, but not to the disadvantage of current shareholders, said Mobius. He attended the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) trading opening late last week.

Franklin Templeton won the bid to manage the Property Fund in June last year. Templeton Asset Management is the company’s division that specializes in emerging markets. Franklin Templeton signed the management contract for the Property Fund in February this year. The firm is awaiting a management takeover from the Romanian government. It is in the process of opening an office in Romania, which will be led by Grzegorz Konieczny, the general manager of the firm’s Polish division.

The Property Fund is an investment vehicle set up to compensate people whose homes were seized by the Communists.

Corina Saceanu

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