A new sample of consistency à la BSE

Hardly had the dust settled at the Central Depository, after the installation of the new management - in two stages -, that its majority shareholder the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) put its foot in it and has rejected, in the General Shareholder Meeting, for everyone to see, the business plan and the budget for the year 2015.

The Central Depository is a stone's throw away - a few floors below - from the BSE, meaning that anyone from the Exchange could have told them, before the General Shareholder Meeting, that the majority shareholder wasn't going to approve the estimates of the management.

Also, the BSE could have consulted with the Depository concerning the proposals of the General Shareholder Meeting or to request the adding of new items to the agenda, so that the disagreements don't come out.

Yet, the BSE followed last year's method, when the CEO of the Exchange, Ludwik Sobolewski, was in conflict with the then-CEO of the Depository, Cristian Agalopol.

At the time, the BSE went with Sobolewski, even though the mandate to vote had been given by the Board of Directors.

This time, it is unclear how the new management of the Depository has upset Sobolewski or the Board of the Exchange.

Once more, the BSE shows its lack of consistency in managing the business of the group. The BSE doesn't even realize that it puts in a bad light another company in the group.

Now, the management of the Depository will have to redo the budget and the business plan and to submit them again to the shareholders for approval.

In a bit of posturing, the BSE has also made some changes to the list of fees and commissions of the Depository, that has been submitted to the Depository, proposed in the General Shareholder Meeting. Some fees have been decreased, others have been capped.

According to some sources, the Exchange made the modifications, without any prior notice, and without any impact study, as befits the "benchmark" of corporate governance.