Romanian Proprietatea Fund’s Manager Selection Deferred By A Month At Least – Sources

More time is needed to ground a decision on the assignments of both the manager and the supervisory board and to present the Government a final version of the improved task book, the sources said.

On Friday, the selection committee will discuss delaying the process for one to three months.

A longer period of suspension might be approved, as nobody is pressing for a quick listing of the Fund, due to the financial crisis, the quoted sources also said.

The procedure of selecting the manager of Proprietatea Fund was suspended for 15 working days as of February 12, for a more efficient control of the society that will administrate the fund’s assets.

Eight international investment companies, namely Morgan Stanley, Julius Baer, Credit Suisse & OTP, ING Invest Management, AVIVA Global Services, BlackRock, FINAG Holding Gmbh and Franklin Templeton Investments filled by bids to participate in the manager selection process of Fondul Proprietatea.

The Fund, majority owned by the Finance Ministry, was created in December 2005 to compensate Romanians whose property was seized during the communist regime. The Fund’s portfolio includes stakes in 88 companies.

Proprietatea Fund reported a 3.43 billion lei (EUR1=RON4.2785) net loss in 2008, compared with a net profit of RON313.1 million in 2007, due to write-downs of its financial assets, according to the company’s preliminary results.