Back-room intrigues continue around the elections of the stock exchange

Tomorrow, the Bucharest Stock Exchange will elect a new chairman for a period of two years and a new Board of Directors.

Dan Paul is the only candidate, although rumors among the brokers say that other contenders may be Mircea Botta and Stere Farmache.

Even though Siminel Andrei yesterday explicitly stated that he would not run for chairman, brokers expect a surprise candidature from him.

Siminel Andrei said: "I don"t intend to run for chairman, because my opinions have a limited number of supporters. What"s more, the BSE has shareholders that indirectly hold over 10% of the stock exchange and in order to get more at prices as cheap as possible, they need obedience and not results at the moment. In the near future, I will try to fight and contain this phenomenon, which contaminates the democracy of the stock market, which is the cornerstone of investor confidence".

However, yesterday he submitted his candidature for a seat on the Board of Directors.

Brokers said that as a result, Siminel Andrei implicitly announced that he would personally attend the General Shareholders" Assembly, instead of sending in a proxy. They said that the tradition of the previous years, allows one to register their candidature for the presidency of the Stock Exchange during the course of the Shareholders" Assembly, (provided the latter accepts it, even though the Charter of the Stock Exchange does not include provisions for such a situation). Brokers say that this would allow Siminel to announce his candidature on the spot, in spite of his statement to the contrary, if he were to deem it appropriate.