"Franklin Templeton" has raised its stake in the BSE to 5.58%

• Brokerage firm "Estinvest" sold 0.82% of the shares of the Bucharest Stock Exchange on the same day that Franklin Templeton bought an identical number of shares of the BSE

"Franklin Templeton Asset Management" yesterday announced that it has increased its stake in the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), from 4.74% to 5.58%, following a trade made on September 19th, by which it acquired 64,378 shares of the BSE.

At the time, a special trade was concluded on the BSE by which 63,034 shares of the market operator were sold. Brokerage firm "Estinvest" was reported as having sold the 63,034 shares in the BSE, and "Templeton Global Investment Trust" was reported as having bought an identical number of shares on the Deal market.

The capital market law stipulates that no shareholder of any market operator may own, directly or indirectly, more than 5% of the voting rights.

"At best, we could suspend the votes afferent to any shares above the 5% limit, other than that, it"s not our job", said one of the members of the board of the BSE, who did not wish for his name to be disclosed.

Both "Estinvest", and "Franklin Templeton" have a representative on the Board of Directors of the BSE, namely Lucian Isac (representing the domestic brokerage firm) and Grzegorz Konieczny, the vice-president of "Franklin Templeton" and the Fund manager of the "Proprietatea Fund".

Grzegorz Konieczny was appointed a temporary member on the Board of Directors of the BSE at the end of March, this year, after Daniel Ţepeş announced his resignation. At the end of April, the shareholders of the Bucharest Stock Exchange elected Konieczny as a member of the Board of Directors, and the Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM) validated his appointment in the month of May. Market sources said that the Romanian National Securities Commission has recently admitted a contestation submitted by one of the shareholders of the BSE which alleges that Grzegorz Konieczny, the executive vice-president of Franklin Templeton, the manager of the Proprietatea Fund is incompatible with being a member of the Board of Directors of the Bucharest Stock Exchange.