* Mark Mobius: We want to take over the management of the Proprietatea Fund as soon as possible

The management of "Franklin Templeton", the American company which was selected almost one year ago to manage the Proprietatea Fund, is beginning to lose its patience at the snail"s pace of the Romanian authorities in solving the legal formalities needed to allow the transfer of the fund"s management.

It is for the first time since being awarded the contract that the management of "Franklin Templeton" publicly warns that the process of appointing the management of the Proprietatea Fund needs to be sped up.

Last week, "Franklin Templeton" renewed its offer for the management of the Proprietatea Fund for another six months.

Mark Mobius, the chairman of Franklin Templeton, said, in the beginning of last week, that speeding up the legal formalities would be beneficial for the Romanian state as well, by allowing the fund to pay out dividends for 2008 and 2009: "We want to take over the management of the Fund as soon as possible. On a global level, we are now seeing a window of opportunity which it would be a shame to miss given the cash that the Proprietatea Fund has available. The state itself would earn about 600 million lei if the amendments to the Decree 81/2007 were approved and the dividends for the last two years were distributed". Mark Mobius also warns about the risk that the parliamentary holiday would prevent the adoption of the methodology for the listing of the Fund and would lead to the cancellation of 500 million shares that the state has subscribed but has not yet paid in.

The cancellation of the unpaid shares would allow the payment of dividends that has been blocked over the last two years.

Until the takeover of the management of the Proprietatea Fund by the new administrator, the Government needs to approve a draft decree