The Romanian state has been summoned to appear in court in a lawsuit "Ioana Sfîrăială versus the Proprietatea Fund"

Lawyer Ioana Sfîrăială is also summoning the authorities of the state to appear in court in a lawsuit against the Proprietatea Fund, with the first hearing set for January 14th, 2013.

The institutions expected to appear in court are the Ministry of Public Finance, the Romanian government and the Romanian National Securities Commission.

Ioana Sfîrăială has asked the court to designate a person that will summon a meeting of the shareholders of the Proprietatea Fund to discuss some documents which were supposed to be presented by the former management of the Proprietatea Fund.

"On the hearing which was held on December 3rd, 2o12, the litigating party (ed. note: Ioana Sfîrăială) said that she wants to sue the Fund, the Romanian State, represented by the Ministry of Public Finances, the Romanian Government and the Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM), and asked the court to designate a person which would be authorized to summon a general meeting of the shareholders of the Fund, which would include the following items on the agenda: the approval of the financial statements for the years concluded in December 31st, 2010 and December 31st, 2011; the presentation of the report of the directorate for the years 2010 and 2011; the presentation of the report of the auditor for the years 2010 and 2011; the approval of the budget of the Proprietatea Fund for the year 2012; the increase by three of the number of members of the Supervisory Board of the Fund; the approval of the allocation of the net profit for the 2011 financial years and the setting of the net value of the dividends, as well as the approval of a registration date, according to the provisions of the law", according to a report sent by the Proprietatea Fund to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).

In October 2010, Ioana Sfîrăială filed a lawsuit disputing most of the decisions of the General Shareholder Meeting of the Fund, claiming that Franklin Templeton did not have the right to summon the General Shareholder Meeting, because it is not the manager of the Fund. In October 2010, Ioana Sfîrăială filed a lawsuit partially disputing part the decision of the General Shareholder Meeting of the Proprietatea Fund to appoint Franklin Templeton as fund manager, claiming that the draft to amend the articles of incorporation of the Proprietatea Fund had not been submitted within the legal delays (30 days in advance of the General shareholder Meeting).

In October 2012, the Bucharest Court of Appeal made an irrevocable ruling annulling a decision made by the General Shareholder Meeting of the Proprietatea Fund (FP) of September 2010, by which the bylaws were changed, to later have Franklin Templeton be appointed as manager of the Proprietatea Fund. The Court of Appeal therefore upheld the decision of the Court of Bucharest of December 21st, 2011, which declared completely null and void the decisions of the General Shareholder Meeting of the Proprietatea Fund of September 6th, 2010.

Following the ruling of the Court of Appeal, Franklin Templeton announced that it would continue to manage the Proprietatea Fund, according to the articles of incorporation, because the version of the articles of incorporation the ruling refers to is not the one that is currently in effect.

The shareholders of the Proprietatea Fund reaffirmed several times the decisions of the General Shareholder Meeting made since September 2010, in fact Franklin Templeton wanted to inform that Manchester Securities, the largest shareholder of the Fund, has formulated requests for intervention in the interest of the Fund in three lawsuits involving Ioana Sfîrăială.