Almost two per position in the BSE elections

Sixteen candidates have registered for the elections for the Board of Directors of the BSE, scheduled to take place on December 14th, with a number of 1.77 applicants per seat, after the Financial Oversight Authority (ASF) has maintained the conflicts of interest between the positions held by some of the candidates.

Of the current Board of Directors, seven members want to keep their positions. President Lucian Anghel wants another term, as does Valerian Ionescu, the head of the Capital markets department of BCR, both proposed by the Romanian Commercial Bank.

Stere Farmache, the former CEO of the BSE, and Dan Paul, the president of the Association of Brokers and BSE vice-president, are also aiming for the position of CEO, while Octavian Molnar, the head of IFB Finwest, only wants a seat on the Board of Directors.

The three candidacies are seen as dangerous by an unnamed person from the BSE, who put a star next to each of their names and wrote next to them: "If a member of the Board of Directors of the Exchange does not have the right to hold that position, according to article 41 paragraph (1) of the Articles of Incorporation of the Company, the BSE would be exposed to a major legal risk when it comes to the validity of the decision of its Board of Directors. In that case, there are reasons, supported by legal opinions, which cause us to feel that the person in question no longer has the right to be a member of the Board of the Exchange or, at the very least that there are serious doubts over that right, which can not be presently removed".

Of course, the BSE did not provide any details on these "legal opinions" it is quoting.

Pompei Lupşan, currently vice-president of the BSE, and Robert Cosmin Pană, of Swiss Capital, also want to keep their positions with the Exchange.

Aside from the current board members, nine more candidates have announced their running for the elections.

One surprise is the candidacy of Claudiu Doroş, vice-president of SIF Moldova, for the position of member of the Board of Directors of the BSE.

Currently, the position of SIF2 vice-president and BSE board member are incompatible, according to the regulations in effect.

The fact that the SIFs want to get involved in the management of the BSE has been visible from the previous General Shareholder Meeting which was meant to discuss the switch to the two-tier management system, as well as in the elections for the Board of Directors of the Central Depository.

For that matter, the Financial Oversight Authority (ASF) had shown some hints that it wanted to eliminate the incompatibilities between capital market positions, which would have allowed the management of the SIFs to take over the reins of the BSE.

This hasn't happened, however, so it remains to be seen what the move of Claudiu Doroş would be, if he got the votes of the BSE General Shareholder Meeting.

In the elections of the Central Depository, the BSE supported four incompatible candidates and had to endure the awkwardness of having them rejected by the ASF.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, one of the biggest shareholders of the Exchange, with a 5% stake, is backing Otto E. Naegeli.

Other candidates include Gabriel Marica (self-nominated), Cristian Micu (proposed by Nicolae Albu) and Ovidiu Sergiu Pop (proposed by Intervam for the position of CEO as well).

The list of candidates also comprises Radu Toia, former head of authorization and regulation of the Financial Oversight Authority (ASF) and former deputy chairman of SIF Transilvania, as well as Alina Constantinescu, former lawyer of the BSE, former lawyer of the BSE, and Lucian Dobre, former employee of the Exchange, who asked Ludwik Sobolewski questions about his salary in a General Shareholder Meeting.

It is interesting that the majority of candidates have registered as independent candidates, even though some of them clearly come from brokerages or listed companies.

The only ones who didn't declare themselves "independent" are: Octavian Molnar, Robert Pană and Dan Paul.

Some of the reported significant shareholders of the Exchange include SIF Moldova (5%), SIF Transilvania (7.17%), SIF Muntenia (4.32%), SIF Oltenia (5%) and the EBRD (5%). According to market sources, the BCR group, the ING funds and the Franklin Templeton funds also have stakes that are close to 5% each.