Czech Brokerage firm Wood & Company Financial Services will intermediate the share repurchase program for Fondul Proprietatatea in Romania, according to Franklin Templeton Investment Management, the investment manager and administrator of the fund.

The fund has a budget of RON 120.3 million (around EUR 29 million), which could be used to repurchase shares, according to the financial statements as of December 31, 2010. This amount is expected to increase with the available distributable profits for 2010 by unpaid dividends, pending on shareholders' decision. The fund can repurchase up to 10 percent of the existing shares, until March 1st next year.

Fondul Proprietatea was launched in 2005 to compensation to Romanian citizens whose properties were confiscated by the former communist regime. Franklin Templeton officially took over the role of investment manager and sole administrator of the Fund on September 29, 2010.

Fondul Proprietatea was listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on January 25 this year. Trading with the fund's shares reached EUR 237 million in the first month on the BSE. The latest trading price on the BSE was of RON 0.6035.More information on the BSE here.

Wood & Company Financial Services is an invetsment bank from the Czech Republic which started to work on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in 2007.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com