Franklin Templeton takes over FP asset management


The general meeting of shareholders (AGA) of the Proprietatea Fund (FP) yesterday approved the appointment of Franklin Templeton Investment of Britain as single manager of the fund, Mediafax reports. The company will take over the fund management after publication of AGA resolutions in the Official Journal. The Proprietatea Fund assets total some RON 11 bln. The Proprietatea Fund could be listed on the London Stock Exchange at the end of next year, Franklin Templeton Chairman and CEO Mark Mobius said yesterday. ‘The London Exchange listing will be, in my view, sometime at the end of next year, because preparations take 6 to 8 months. We need to organise road shows to explain investors in the US, China and other countries where Romania lies’, Mobius said.


EUR 4 bln for Nabucco project


The European Investment Bank (EIB), together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and World Bank’s International Financial Corporation (IFC) signed an agreement that will potentially ensure financing of up to EUR 4 billion for the Nabucco pipeline project on Monday, Mediafax informs. EIB might provided EUR two billion for the project, while EBRD and IFC could come up with EUR 1.2 billion and up to EUR 800 million, respectively, according to the statement. The Nabucco consortium could sign agreements with potential lenders in 2011. The Nabucco pipeline construction is estimated at around EUR8 billion.


Petrom sells Russian exploration assets


Petrom company yesterday announced it had sold its 74.9 per cent Ring Oil stock to minority partner Mineral and Bio Oil Fuels Limited (MBO), ‘Romania Libera’ daily informs. The parties agreed not to disclose the price and the terms & conditions of the deal. ‘In the current economic environment and following the prioritisation of our investment projects, we have decided to sell the assets we held in Russia’, Petrom official in charge of exploration and production, Johann Pleininger, said. Ring Oil Holding & Trading Ltd. Is an oil company with Russian from Russia and from other countries, with vast experience in oil exploration and production operations, in the trading of oil and oil products and in oil drilling, in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.


Dissatisfied clients organize fresh action against banks


Those who signed credit contracts with Volksbank, the Commercial Bank of Romania (BCR), Bancpost and Raiffeisen Bank called on the National Bank of Romania (BNR) to take action “in those cases in which courts have already ruled on abuses” by banks, HotNews reports. Thus, the banks in question will have to stand up, during this week, to another flood of protests from clients who feel “cheated” by the credit institutions. New rounds of meetings with lawyers are scheduled to take place in the following days, as well as, most likely, the first joint meetings of representatives of the negotiation groups from various banks, and street protests meant to draw the attention of institutions which hold prerogatives over the financial sector. According to clients, the advertising campaign in the press by which Volksbank announces it is implementing the Government’s Emergency Ordinance (OUG) 50/ 2010 and calls on the clients to go and sign the additional acts – in which terms are interpreted in their own way – is seen as new attempt by the bank to modify certain terms and, this time, to the bank’s advantage.