Stock repurchase and persuading the Romanian state to privatise energy companies make the "ace" up the sleeve of Franklin Templeton manager to boost the price of FP shares on the Bourse, so that it should be as close as possible or even equal that of the Fund value of 1.11 RON/share.

After having turned the improbable possible and listed Fondul Proprietatea on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, Franklin Templeton's manager now has the task of bolstering the value of FP shares because compensating tens of thousand former owners, as well as the sum he gets for the management mandate depend on the price of the share on the Bourse.

"It is very important to boost the Fund's value so that we should narrow down the gap between the share price, now at 0.6 RON on the Bourse (yesterday around 11.00 i.e.) and the unit value of the net asset, of 1.1 RON, and maybe even go beyond this threshold. We will decide for the Fund to buy back shares to maintain the price. However, if the state returned the money plus the interest from Romgaz' donation or decided to privatise Hidroelectrica, Nuclearelectrica and float them on the Bourse, so that it should be left with just 20% in these companies, then it would be interesting to see the trend of FP shares," said Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management, the emerging market investment arm of Franklin Templeton.

Stock repurchase and persuading the Romanian state to privatise energy companies make the "ace" up the sleeve of Franklin Templeton manager to boost the price of FP shares on the Bourse, so that it should be as close as possible or even equal that of the Fund value of 1.11 RON/share.

After having turned the improbable possible and listed Fondul Proprietatea on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, Franklin Templeton's manager now has the task of bolstering the valu