Romania's Proprietatea Fund pays 96% of dividends for 2007 profit, of lei 76.2m

Romania's Proprietatea Fund, created by the government to compensate people whose properties were taken by communists, paid a total 76.2 million lei in dividends since September 15, representing 96 percent of the due sum, the fund's representatives announced.

Some 64.01 million lei were paid to the state and 12.19 million lei to individuals.

The company's net profit last year increased 4.3 times year-on-year to 313.1 million lei, after turnover advanced five-fold to 400 million lei.

The dividend paid from the 2007 profit amounts to 0,006590489 lei per share, 160 percent higher than last year, when it stood at 0.002533334 lei. The dividend value, cashed in by shareholders registered until August 19, was established in the general assembly on August 8.

The Proprietatea Fund has yet to distribute dividends totaling 4.32 million lei to people whose properties were taken by communists.

The number of individual shareholders reached 1,970 from 1,891 in July and their stake increased with 0.49 percentage points to 20 percent.

The company's share capital stands at 14.77 billion lei. The fund, created in 2005, controls stakes in 88 companies, most of them in the power system.

The government's plans include, among others, listing the company on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and also on an international bourse in London or New York. This is to take place at the beginning of next year, the soonest or even towards the half of 2009.

NewsIn