* Varujan Vosganian: "The state will try to delay the granting of shares to the former owners"
The National Authority for the Restitution of Properties (ANRP) has announced that it has begun working on issuing new conversion deeds for the "Proprietatea Fund", pertaining to the briefs with requests for options submitted between January 11th to April 15th. However, for now, the Authority has yet to send even conversion deed to the Central Depository, the institution which carries out the transfer of ownership from the account of the Ministry of Finance to the accounts of the people entitled to receive stock in the Proprietatea Fund.
The ANRP later informed that 1.4 billion shares in the Proprietatea Fund, representing 10% of the share capital of the Fund, will be issued after May 2nd, the date when the issuing of new conversion deeds was scheduled. The process was however suspended on January 11th, prior to the listing of the Proprietatea Fund on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
However, the representatives of the Authority have told us that there is no regulation that would require the ANRP to issue new conversion deeds within a specific timeframe after May 2nd, which raises uncertainty over the moment when the 1.4 billion shares, or at least part of them will come into the market. The issuing of new conversion deeds and the registration of new shareholders could turn into a race against the clock, as the date of May 16th was set as registration date for the payment of last year"s dividend for the Proprietatea Fund.
"We are not bound to meet a deadline when it comes to issuing the conversion deeds, but, the law stipulates that there is a period of 30 days from the time of their issue, in which we are required to send the conversion deeds to the Central Depository, for registration", the representatives of the Authority said.
Varujan Vo
