Fondul Proprietatea : celebrates 11 years since its listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange

Franklin Templeton International Services S.A R.L. Bucharest Branch

Premium Point Building

76-80 Buzesti, 8th floor

Bucharest 011017

Romania

FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION: 27 JANUARY 2022

FONDUL PROPRIETATEA CELEBRATES 11 YEARS SINCE ITS LISTING ON THE BUCHAREST STOCK

EXCHANGE

Bucharest, 27 January 2022 - Franklin Templeton International Services S.À R.L., in its capacity as alternative investment Fund Manager and sole director (the "Fund Manager") of Fondul Proprietatea S.A. (the "Fund") celebrates eleven years since the listing of the Fund on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on January 25, 2011. During this period, it has significantly contributed to the development of the local capital market through improvements in corporate governance, management and transparency the corporate governance standards in SOEs and constantly creating value for its shareholders.

Ilinca von Derenthall, Chairperson of the Board of Nominees said: "Fondul Proprietatea has continuously supported the development of the Romanian capital market and the implementation of Corporate Governance best practices at portfolio companies' level. There is still a lot to do, and the only way towards progress is to list new companies on the stock exchange. We are strongly advocating for these IPO'S and in Hidroelectrica and Salrom we have two prominent companies ready to start the listing process. We intend to take advantage of the strong momentum on the local capital market and to work for the benefit of all stakeholders. With the listing of these two companies, Romania is taking an important step towards being promoted to the emerging market status by MSCI, which will allow for new fund inflows on the Bucharest Stock Exchange."

On this occasion, Johan Meyer, CEO of Franklin Templeton Bucharest Branch and portfolio manager of Fondul Proprietatea said: "Over the 11 years since the listing, Fondul Proprietatea has made a significant contribution to the development of its portfolio companies through close involvement in the implementation of corporate governance standards and advocating for improved transparency. The resultant improvement in financial performance has directly translated to value creation for the Funds' investors. We are prepared to support the listing of state-owned companies in the near future, as we believe this to be great opportunity to encourage more investment in Romania and to unlock value for shareholders. Companies such as Hidroelectrica and Salrom are well positioned to be major beneficiaries of being listed and will put Romania on the radar screen of investors across the globe."

Last year Fondul Proprietatea received approval in principle from the Ministry of Economy to list its stake in Salrom on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, and this year the Fund wants to obtain the necessary approvals from the Ministry of Energy for the listing of Hidroelectrica.

The most significant achievements in the 11-years period since the listing of the Fund on the BVB:

• The share price reached a historical maximum of RON 2.22 per share on January 17, 2022, more than double RON 1,00 per share, which was the nominal value of the share at the creation of the Fund, thus strengthening the constant performance over the last 11 years.

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• Since Franklin Templeton took over the management of Fondul Proprietatea in September 2010, the Fund has made gross cash distributions of RON 7.2 billion (USD 2.1 billion) to shareholders and completed 12 buy-back programs, worth over RON 7.3 billion.
• Fondul Proprietatea completed around half of the special transactions (such as IPOs, SPO, and ABOs) executed on BVB between 2012 and 2021. The most important transactions concluded by the Fund include: Transgaz ABO (2013), Transelectrica ABO (2014), Conpet ABO (2014), Romgaz ABOs (2014, 2015, 2016), and Petrom ABOs (2013, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022).
• The volume of Fondul Proprietatea shares traded on BVB represents 33% of the total volume of equities traded on BVB between 2011 - 2021.
• FP ranked 1st place among the most traded issuers on BVB during the 11-year period, with an average trading value of RON 9.9 mn, and was the 5th largest listed Romanian company on the BVB, representing almost 6% of the total market capitalization as at the end of 2021.

-	ENDS -
Contacts:
	Elena Birjovanu		Cristina Butunoi
	Senior Corporate Communications Manager		Head of Corporate Division
	Franklin Templeton International Services S.A		Golin
	R.L.Bucharest Branch Premium Point		Metropolis Bravo, 89-97 Grigore Alexandrescu
	76-80 Buzesti, 011017, Bucharest		010627 Bucharest, Romania
	Tel: [phone]		Tel: [phone]
	Email:[e-mail]		Email:[e-mail]

Notes to Editors

1. About Fondul Proprietatea

Launched in December 2005, Fondul Proprietatea was established to compensate Romanians whose properties were confiscated by the former communist government. Following an international tender announced in December 2008, Franklin Templeton was officially appointed as investment manager and sole administrator of the Fund on 29 September 2010.

Fondul Proprietatea (the Fund) is a joint stock company operating as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF), incorporated in Romania, T and its investment objective is the maximization of returns to shareholders and the increase of the net asset value per share via investments mainly in Romanian equities and equity-linked securities. The Fund was listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on 25 January 2011, and on the Specialist Fund Market of the London Stock Exchange by means of global depositary receipts ("GDRs") on 29 April 2015.

The headquarters of Fondul Proprietatea SA are at 76-80 Buzesti Street, 7th Floor, Bucharest District 1, 011017, Romania. For more information on Fondul Proprietatea, please visit http://www.fondulproprietatea.ro.

2. About Franklin Templeton

Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN] is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 165 countries. Franklin Templeton's mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company brings extensive capabilities in equity, fixed income, multi-asset solutions and alternatives. With offices in more than 30 countries and approximately 1,300 investment professionals, the California-based company has over 70 years of investment experience and over 1.5 trillion in assets under management as of 31 December 2021. For more information, please visit www.franklintempleton.ro.

Franklin Templeton established an office in Bucharest in May 2010, with a team of 32 employees, including 6 locally based investment professionals, supported by over 40 portfolio managers and analysts of the wider Templeton Emerging Markets team.

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Starting with 1 April 2016, in view of complying with the EU Directive 2011/61 on alternative investment fund managers, the Fund is managed by Franklin Templeton Investment Services S.À R.L. ("FTIS/ Fund Manager"), a société à responsabilité limitée qualifying as an alternative investment fund manager under Article 5 of the Luxembourg Law of 12 July 2013 on alternative investment fund managers, authorized by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier under no. A00000154/21 November 2013, whose registered office is located at 8A rue Albert Borschette, L-1246 Luxembourg, registered with the Luxembourg Register of Commerce and Companies under number B 36.979.

This release herein is issued by FTIS Bucharest Branch, registered therein under the number 40198471.

The office of FTIS Bucharest Branch is located at Premium Point, 8th floor, 76-80 Buzesti street, District 1, Bucharest, Romania. Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone].

This press release is intended to be of general interest only, and does not constitute professional advice. Franklin Templeton and its management groups have exercised professional care and diligence in the collection and processing of the information in this press release. Franklin Templeton makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy of this document. Franklin Templeton shall not be liable to any user of this report or to any other person or entity for the inaccuracy of information contained in this press release or for any errors or omissions in its contents, regardless of the cause of such inaccuracy, error or omission. Any research and analysis contained in this document has been procured by Franklin Templeton for its own purposes.

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