ONE YEAR AFTER THE LISTING, Mark Mobius hopes the shares of Proprietatea Fund will reach 1 leu

• The shares of the Proprietatea Fund are trading at a 60% discount

One year after the listing, the shares of the "Proprietatea Fund" are trading at a 60% discount compared to the NAV. However, Mark Mobius, the CEO of "Templeton Emerging Markets Group" hopes that this discount will shrink in the future, and even better, that someday the price will exceed the NAV.

Mark Mobius said: "We had the experience of trading at a premium compared to the NAV in some closed-end funds in Russia and London. We hope, why not, that this will also happen in the case of the Proprietatea Fund".

Mr. Mobius emphasized the need to attract more investors. In this regard, Mobius mentioned the change of the voting procedure at the general shareholder meetings, through the decision of shareholders in the month of November. A share currently grants one vote. Before, shareholders who owned less than 1% of the shares had one vote for each share owned. Shareholders owning between 1% and 3% had one vote for every two shares owned, and the blocks between 3% and 5% granted one vote for every three shares. Shareholders owning more than 5% of the Proprietatea Fund had no voting rights.

"The new voting method will make the fund even more attractive for investors. The fund is now in the hand of shareholders", Mobius said.

He also considers that another important step for the development of the Fund is the maintaining of a good cooperation with the authorities.

In fact, Grzegorz Konieczny, the manager of the "Proprietatea Fund", said that the relationship wit the government has significantly improved compared to one year ago. Thus, Konieczny hopes that this year several major companies will go public this year.

• The Proprietatea Fund intends to sell part of the shares it owns in the natural gas and electricity companies

Grzegorz Konieczny said that this year, the Proprietatea Fund wants to sell some of its shares it owns in natural gas and electricity companies: "We intend to explore the possibilities of selling some of our stakes this year. They are in companies in the natural gas and electricity sectors, distributors and providers".

The Proprietatea Fund has in its portfolio companies operating in the electricity and natural gas sector, such as Enel Distribuţie Muntenia, GDF Suez Energy Romania, Nuclearelectrica, Hidroelectrica, OMV Petrom, Transgaz and Romgaz.

The managers of the Fund do not guarantee that after the listing of the companies, the value of the Proprietatea Fund, the value of the Proprietatea Fund will increase.

Mark Mobius said: "We do however, consider that through transparency and through a private management, the value of the Proprietatea Fund will increase".

Grzegorz Konieczny also mentioned that the deadline for the listing of the Proprietatea Fund on the Warsaw Stock Exchange is still the first semester of 2012, even though the process is still being held back by the talks with the Romanian National Securities Commission on legislation matters.

• The US ambassador: "The profits of Romanian state owned companies are far too often diverted towards the state budget or towards the pockets of people with influential connections"

The profits of Romanian state owned companies are far too often diverted towards the state budget or towards the pockets of people with influential connections, says Mark Gitenstein, the US ambassador.

Mr. Gitenstein thinks that even though it is the right of the government to transfer these revenues towards its own budget, this deprives state owned companies of the funds they need to make investments, and ultimately, to generate economic growth.

Mark Gitenstein enthusiastically praised the IPOs of Romgaz, Hidroelectrica and Nuclearelectrica, which the government announced for this year, as well as the secondary public offerings of Petrom, Transelectrica and Transgaz. He said: "The government should view these offerings not just as methods of privatizing the companies in question and of replenishing the state's coffers, but as ways for those companies to obtain the necessary capital to make investments".

The American ambassador in Romania considers that any company, regardless of whether it is state owned or not, should show responsibility towards its shareholders. "The managers of companies need to prove that their priority is the success of their companies, not their personal gain", he said.