IN THE ABSENCE OF ANY ACHIEVEMENT, DECISIONS MADE LIGHTLY "The voting machine" of the BSE has approved stock bonuses for the current management

The current management of the Bucharest Stock Exchange and its employees will be awarded shares that are bought back as part of a buyback program, as the shareholders of the BSE have decided yesterday, who have thus rejected the proposal of SIF Transilvania of the shares in question being cancelled.

The GSM has approved a program for the buyback of 1.49% of the share capital, worth up to 4,000,000 lei.

The management of the BSE has proposed rewarding itself, while the performance of the market operator is not spectacular.

In 2016, the Bucharest Stock Exchange posted a consolidated net profit of 7.87 million lei (approximately 1.74 million Euros), up 19% over 2015, when it had amounted to 7 million lei. However, 2015 showed a strong drop compared to 11.8 million lei, in 2014, and 8.2 million lei in 2013. The BSE is also not doing very well in terms of liquidity, which is the only criterion it has still to meet in order to be promoted to the emerging market status.

Despite the results, the current management of the BSE has a massive support among shareholders, particularly among banks.

Yesterday's General Shareholder Meeting had a quorum of approximately 70%, with all the proposals of the BSE going through without problems.

• Retail brokers, unhappy with the new fees

One of the decisions made yesterday concerns the modification of the structure of trading fees, by reducing the variable part of the commissions and increasing the fixed part.

Retail brokers said, in yesterday's meeting, that the proposal places them at a disadvantage from banks and that it goes against the BSE strategy to encourage the retail segment.

Lucian Anghel, the president of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, has argued the promotion of the new commission plan saying that its structure is the same as the one used in developed countries, according to some sources present in the meeting. Brokers responded that volumes on other markets are not comparable to those on the BSE.

Dan Paul, the president of the Association of Brokers told us: "If the proposal of the Board of Directors was a mistake that is detrimental to the retail brokers, then things can still be straightened out by January 1st, 2018, when the new commission structure is set to come into effect, through another General Shareholders Meeting, where the Board of Directors would come up with a new proposal".

According to some sources, the revenues of the BSE are not expected to increase following the implementation of the new tariffs, because the fixed fees will compensate the reduction of the variable fees.

The Bucharest Stock Exchange is targeting a buying fee of 0.035% and a sale fee of 0.095%.

The cut of the trading commission on the for "buy" orders is -12.5% compared to the current level of the commission in question, and the cut of the trading fee on "sell" orders is -5% compared to the current level.

Also, the BSE intends to introduce a fixed tariff per filled order of 0.95 lei applicable for the Regular tier of the spot market for stocks.

According to the BSE, the fee will be charged for the execution of an order, regardless of the number of transactions generated within a period of time.

Also, in yesterday's general shareholder meeting, Claudia Ionescu, Head of the Securities Division of BRD, was elected as member of the Board of Directors of the BSE, replacing Radu Toia after his resignation.

The BSE has also approved the merger with Sibex and the payout of a gross dividend per share of 0.92028 lei.