FRANKLIN TEMPLETON INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED UNITED KINGDOM Bucharest Branch Premium Point Building 78-80 Buzesti, 8th

floor Bucharest 011017 Romania Tel: +40 (0) 21 2009 600 Fax: +40 (0) 21 2009 631

FROM:

Franklin Templeton Investments www.franklintempleton.co.uk

For more information, contact: Bucharest: Elena Birjovanu, +40 21 200 9640, ebirjovanu@frk.com Bucharest: GolinHarris, +40 21 301 0051, MBotez@golinharris.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 17 MAY 2013 PLACEMENT OF OMV PETROM SHARES: LARGEST PRIVATE PLACEMENT EVER DONE ON THE ROMANIAN MARKET

Bucharest, 17 May 2013 - Franklin Templeton Investment Management Limited UK Bucharest Branch, in its capacity of Sole Director and Fund Manager of S.C. Fondul Proprietatea S.A. (the Fund) would like to inform shareholders and investors that, following the completion of a bookbuilding process undertaken with J.P. Morgan Securities plc. acting as sole global coordinator and joint bookrunner, WOOD & Company Financial Services a.s. acting as joint bookrunner and Raiffeisen Capital & Investment S.A. acting as joint lead manager, for the placement on the Bucharest Stock Exchange of ordinary shares held by the Fund in OMV PETROM S.A. (Petrom), in accordance with art. 15 (1) of the Romanian National Securities Commission Regulation 1/2006 regarding issuers and securities operations, as amended, the final number of the offered ordinary shares is 632,482,000 (the "Placing Shares") and the price per share is RON 0.39 / share. The key motivation of Fondul Proprietatea in undertaking this transaction was to create a liquidity event in Petrom shares, resulting in higher trading volumes post-transaction and potentially a higher share price. Proceeds from the transaction can be used for buybacks and other value-enhancing operations for shareholders. Some of the most significant highlights of this placement, in terms of demand, size of the deal and pricing, were: Demand o Majority of demand came from international investors; o 46 orders came into the book, of which 63% from investors who are not current shareholders in Petrom; o Majority of total demand came from investors who previously were not shareholders in Petrom; Size of the transaction o The placement size (RON247mm / EUR57mm) represented 256 days of trading of Petrom shares and 14.8% of the pre-transaction free float (i.e. the number of liquid shareholdings in Petrom prior to the transaction); o Largest ever Accelerated Book Building in Romania; o Largest ever Accelerated Book Building in South East Europe;

Pricing o Pricing at a 12.2% discount to closing price just before launch, in line with pricing levels achieved for comparable transactions in the region: Eurocash (Poland, Retail), Accelerated Book Building, Aug 2012, $112mm size, priced at a 11.6% discount to previous close, 6% of market cap; Astarta (Ukraine, Agricultural), Accelerated Book Building, Mar 2011, $30mm size, priced at a 10.4% discount to previous close, 4% of market cap; MHP (Russia, Food & Beverage), Accelerated Book Building, Dec 2010, $124mm size, priced at a 13.2% discount to previous close, 9% of market cap; Cherkizovo (Russia, Food & Beverage), Accelerated Book Building, Apr 2010, $47mm size, priced at a 10.0% discount to previous close, 5% of market cap; EDC (Russia, Oilfield services), Accelerated Book Building, Apr 2010, $228mm size, priced at a 14.7% discount to previous close, 8% of market cap; Pol-Aqua (Poland, Construction), Accelerated Book Building, Aug 2007, $36mm size, priced at a 15.5% discount to previous close, 8% of market cap; Petrol Ofisi (Turkey, Oil & Gas), Accelerated Book Building, Jan 2006, $77mm size, priced at a 11.7% discount to previous close, 6% of market cap.

Furthermore, with this transaction Fondul Proprietatea attracted J.P. Morgan Securities, one of the leading global investment banks, to offer its services in Romania as the sole global coordinator and joint bookrunner of this deal. Greg Konieczny, Fund Manager of Fondul Proprietatea, commented: We consider the OMV Petrom placement a successful one, as it is the largest private placement ever done on the Romanian market and it has drawn new investors and liquidity to Petrom, which remains an important shareholding of the Fund. The local capital market needs large transactions in order to be able to further develop and it should be noted that unfortunately we have witnessed only two secondary placements since we took over the mandate of the Fund in 2010. The Fund Manager hopes that this large transaction will further raise the attractiveness of the Romanian market among both local and foreign institutional investors. However, in order for this to happen, a number of reforms should first be implemented, including: Elimination of all holding limits on listed stocks; Easier procedures for shareholders to vote at GSMs; Access to the market by institutional investors should be less costly and bureaucratic; Trading fees should be made competitive to other regional markets; Pension funds should be encouraged to invest more in Romanian equities; The schedule for IPOs of state-owned enterprises should be respected; The corporate governance code of state-owned enterprises should be properly implemented resulting in truly independent boards and professional management; and Listed companies should publish all investor communications and financial reports in English (as well as Romanian) to make it easier for international investors to understand.

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Launched in December 2005, Fondul Proprietatea (the Fund) was established to compensate Romanians whose properties were confiscated by the former communist government. An international tender was announced in December 2008, and Franklin Templeton Investments officially took over as investment manager and sole administrator of the Fund on 29 September 2010. The Fund is a closed-end investment company with the investment objective of long-term capital appreciation through via investment primarily in Romanian equity securities. Franklin Templeton established an office in Bucharest in May 2010, with a team of 27 employees, including 6 locally based investment professionals who are further supported by the over 40 portfolio managers and analysts of the wider Templeton Emerging Markets team. Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN) is a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment management solutions managed by its Franklin, Templeton, Mutual Series, Bissett, Fiduciary Trust, Darby, Balanced Equity Management and K2 investment teams. The San Mateo, CA-based company has more than 65 years of investment experience and over $847.5 billion in assets under management as of 30 April 2013. For more information, please visit www.franklintempleton.co.uk. Franklin Templeton Investment Management Ltd.s office in Bucharest is located at Premium Point, 8th floor, 78-80 Buzesti, District 1, Bucharest, Romania. Tel: +40.200.96.00, Fax: +40.200.96.31/32. For more information on Fondul Proprietatea, please visit http://www.fondulproprietatea.ro. This press release is intended to be of general interest only, and does not constitute professional advice. Franklin Templeton Investments and its management groups have exercised professional care and diligence in the collection and processing of the information in this press release. Franklin Templeton Investments makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy of this document. Franklin Templeton Investments 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 Investments for its own purposes. Issued by Franklin Templeton Investment Management Limited Bucharest Branch. FTIML Bucharest Branch is authorised and regulated in Romania by CNVM. Copyright 2013. Franklin Templeton Investments. All rights reserved.