THE BSE ELECTIONS Dan Paul and Lucian Anghel are fighting for the presidency of the Stock Exchange

Dan Paul, the president of the Association of Brokers, and Lucian Anghel, the current president of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, seem to be the favorites for the supreme management of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, splitting the shareholders into two camps, according to many market insiders.

The elections for a new Board of Directors of the BSE are scheduled to take place today.

Supporters of Lucian Anghel would include, at least according to tradition, the banking groups and the pension funds, which have the quality of being more disciplined and it is a little difficult for them to change their position from one day to the next. But even among them, some frictions because apparently some funds have been displeased with the fact that under the management of Anghel, the BSE has been focusing too much on marketing events lately.

On the other hand, about Dan Paul people are saying that he has been running a heavy-handed campaign and that aside from independent brokers, that he is relying on, he has also sought to dislodge some of the votes from Anghel's camp.

Furthermore, the presidents of three of the SIFs - SIF Moldova, SIF Transilvania and SIF Oltenia - have personally participated last week, at the Capital Market Awards Gala, organized by the Association of Brokers, which might suggest a certain preference, in today's elections.

But like someone said, "it is an enigma what the SIFs will do". It seems that they will make their decision on the very day of the General Shareholder Meeting, because they will vote in the meeting.

Prior to the General Shareholder Meeting, the atmosphere is almost war-like.

"There are unimaginable games being played, there are promises and threats being made", one of the shareholders of the Bucharest Stock Exchange told us.

Any decisions are made even more difficult by the fact that the list of candidates also includes Claudiu Doroş, the vice-president of SIF Moldova, a position which is incompatible with that of member on the Board of the BSE, according to the regulations of the Financial Oversight Authority.

"Any votes given to Doroş will be wasted", several voices in the market told us, which claim that he will get the number of votes he needs to be a member of the Board, but he won't be validated by the ASF.

Aside from Lucian Anghel and Dan Paul, the candidates which are credited with good odds of entering the Board of Directors of the BSE, aside from some of the current directors, are Otto E. Naegeli, who registered upon the proposal of the EBRD, lawyer Alina Constantinescu and perhaps, Cristian Micu, proposed by Nicolae Albu.

The campaign for the Board of Directors of the BSE has not been as aggressive as the one for the presidency. The former has been described as "chaotic".

"Everyone thought only of themselves and they did not focus on promoting teams at the management of the BSE, which would have been more constructive", one shareholder told us.

The rather low interest in the other seats on the Board, besides the presidency, could have other meanings. It is not out of the question for some of the shareholders to already be thinking of contesting the General Shareholder Meeting and of a repeat of the elections.

Of the current Board of Directors, seven members want to keep their seats: Lucian Anghel, Valerian Ionescu, Stere Farmache, Dan Paul, Octavian Molnar, Adrian Lupşan and Robert Cosmin Pană.

The other new candidates are Claudiu Doroş, vice-president of SIF Moldova, Otto E. Naegeli (BERD), Gabriel Marica (self-nominated), Cristian Micu (proposed by Nicolae Albu), Ovidiu Sergiu Pop, former president of the Central Depository, Radu Toia, former director of authorization and regulation of the Authority of the Financial Oversight (ASF) and former deputy CEO of SIF Transilvania, Alina Constantinescu, former lawyer of the BSE, Mircea Ilie and Lucian Dobre, former employees of the Exchange.

Together, the SIFs control over 20% of the BSE (SIF Moldova -5%, SIF Transilvania -7.17%, SIF Muntenia -4.32, SIF Oltenia -5%), while the EBRD holds 5%. According to market sources, the BCR group and the NN (formerly ING) and Franklin Templeton funds hold stakes of approximately 5%, while other significant stakes are held by the BRD group (approximately 3%) and Aegon (over 3%).