Franklin Templeton appoints Johan Meyer as co-manager at the Proprietatea Fund

Franklin Templeton yesterday announced the appointment of Johan Meyer as Co-CEO al FTIML, Bucharest Branch and Portfolio Co-Manager of the Proprietatea Fund.

The Manager of the Proprietatea Fund reported: "The role of Mr. Johan Meyer will be to support the activity of Mr. Grzegorz Maciej Konieczny, the CEO of FTIML Bucharest and Portfolio Manager of the Proprietatea Fund, at a Co-CEO and Portfolio Co-Manager level. To that end, Mr. Johan Meyer will work in the Bucharest office and will work closely with the FTIML Bucharest Branch which is handling the management of the Proprietatea Fund".

The "BURSA" newspaper wrote in May that Franklin Templeton (FT) was still seeking a co-manager of the investment team of the Proprietatea Fund. Previously, market sources had claimed that FT would be looking to replace Greg Konieczny in a few months.

Dr. Mark Mobius, the Executive Chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group, said: "Johan brings to the Proprietatea Fund an expertise of over 12 years on the emerging markets segment and I have full confidence in his abilities, given the extraordinary progress of his career within our company".

Prior to his new position in Romania, Johan Meyer was Vice-President, Managing Director for South Africa and Strategy Director for Africa as part of Templeton Emerging Markets Group.

In the past, Johan was a member of the management team of Templeton Frontier Funds, which had investments in Romanian companies.

Greg Konieczny, the portfolio manager of the Proprietatea Fund, said: "I am pleased to welcome Johan on the Bucharest Team. His knowledge and expertise are considerable, obtained on emerging markets and frontier markets, they will be very valuable to his term here. I think that Johan is very well positioned to join the investment team in Bucharest and to contribute to the already established history of creating value for the shareholders of the Proprietatea Fund".

The shareholders of the Proprietatea Fund (FP) have decided on Monday to extend the current management term of Franklin Templeton International Services, granting them another chance, even though they have failed to meet the performance criteria to reduce the discount between the price of shares and the NAVPS, to less than 15%.