It doesn't matter whether the CEO of the BSE is called Cionga, Barbu or Sobolewski

The performance of the CEOs of the BSE does not represent an factor that has any influence on the volume of trades taking place on our stock market.

If we review the last two years, the value of the daily turnover follows a constant trend, regardless of who was in charge: Victor Cionga, Ludwik Sobolewski or interim CEO Alin Barbu.

It is true that Ludwik Sobolewski was lucky to have the IPOs of the government, in the very beginning of his term.

During his first six months (September 2013 - February 2014) at the helm of the Exchange, two public offers- Romgaz and Nuclearelectrica - were handed to him on a silver platter by the Romanian government, further inflating the turnover. Their value was 1.7 billion Euros (or a daily average of 14.41 million Euros), during the reviewed period, which was nearly double over the similar period of the previous year, which coincided with the term of Victor Cionga. Without those two IPOs, the increase in liquidity would have been just 69%, but is only due to some sporadic high volume deals.

Thus, the government has kept Ludwik Sobolewski on schedule when it comes to some of the goals he has taken on, as CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, through the contract signed at the end of last summer.

Unlike his predecessor, Victor Cionga, who was dismissed after six months under the pretense of not having performed the restructuring of the BSE fast enough, Ludwik Sobolewski will only be reviewed by the Board after one year.

Sobolewski's contract is confidential, but, according to some sources, among other objectives, he has made the commitment to increase the turnover of the BSE by 50% in 2014, to bring five new issuers to the BSE in the first five months of his term, as well as increase the free-float by 10%.

When it comes to bringing in new issuers, December, January and February went by without listings, and the CEO of the BSE still has some time to meet his goal of achieving five listings.

But if the transfers on the Rasdaq are taken into account, that target remains nothing more than a bad joke - a falsification of the evaluation of the CEO's performance, because his contract stipulates a bonus which depends on his achieving of 80% of the assumed objectives.

In an interview he "BURSA", back in February, Ludwik Sobolewski said that he has achieved all of the goals which had been set for him for the year 2013. "If we are talking about my contract, I think I have actually achieved a little more than what had been set for me. Some of the goals are for 2014, and others are for the September 2013 - September 2014 period", he told us.

According to some sources, the CE of the BSE has collected the performance bonus for last year.

Lucian Anghel, the president of the BSE, declined to provide details concerning this bonus: "According to the legislation in effect disclosing the wage and the performance bonus of the CEO is optional for any listed company, including the BSE, and because it is considered to be part of the financial information category, if it is going to be disseminated, if will only be so through the company's periodical reports" .

One of the tasks of Sobolewski, in the beginning of his term, was the restructuring of the personnel, a process which also generated expenses, especially through the payment of severance packages. The BSE spent 0.52 million lei on the restructuring of the staff, in Q4 2013.

Sobolewski came to the BSE riding an undercurrent of sympathy, as the stock market community was placing its last hopes on his ability to breathe new life into our stock market.

Even though the Board has let the Pole have free reign at the BSE, it would seem that, some voices that are displeased with his activity have begun making themselves heard in the market, as they are unhappy that he has yet to publish any strategy for the BSE. Another criticism concerns his interference in the process for the selection of an IT provider at the Central Depository.

One comment posted on an article posted on the BURSA website called "Sparks fly between the Central Depository and the BSE" is addressed to Mr. Sobolewski directly, mentioning a number of details which prove that its author is familiar with the issue: "Mr. Sobolewski, you have personally halted the project of the Central Depository to join the T2S (ed. note: Target2-Securities - the single Pan-European cross-border settlement service), just so we don't have an achievement that would overshadow your activity in Romania, which is otherwise, at best, superficial. You have wrecked our image, including that of the NBR, which is now struggling to fix the mess you've made.

Another reason of your decision to postpone the Romanian depository joining the T2S in the first wave is the fact that you want to hold all the cards yourself, to be the only one who has control over everything, just like you used to do in Poland.

And yet another reason to postpone the joining of the T2S is the fact that you want to make it a major deal, which would be beneficial to you personally, and to the ones you have close relationships to, the OMX Nasdaq, who, as you told us a few weeks ago in the newspaper, you were unable to make a deal with when you were in charge in Warsaw.

We think that bringing in at the last minute one of your favorite providers, in an international call for tenders held by the Depository in compliance with every regulations, and which has been going on for more than a year, is neither fair, because you knew what the best bids were, nor beneficial to us, because you have wasted more than a year of our work and effort.

We don't know what professional qualifications you have that would allow you to select the software for the Depository. That is a task which is far too qualified for a stock exchange CEO to do, it is an entirely different field, with different requirements and qualifications needed. Mrs. Tănăsoiu is qualified in that regard, and what's more, she is actually a member on the T2S European team. You are a member of seven boards of directors in Poland, generally good at everything, but at nothing in particular when it comes to us.

Moreover, it is clearly visible that you are not honoring the operational independence of the depository, endangering the financial stability of the BSE group, interfering with the management of risks, with the settlement system, overruling the decisions and the roles of several boards of directors, which are required by law to handle risks and strategic decisions.

We think that you should tone it down with the abuse of power, with your focus on deals/huge acquisitions for your own gain and to focus on the stock market, on issuers, on barriers, that is, if you are capable of doing such a thing".

In response, Ludwik Sobolewski sent us the following message: "I am ready to talk to anybody about the correct method for helping the Romanian stock market grow, and about my contribution to that growth".

Aside from the complaints of the market participants, 2014 has started off with a few setbacks for the CEO of the BSE -Hidroelectrica reentering insolvency has made it impossible to take the company public this year, and on some days, the liquidity of the BSE was at dangerously low levels. According to some, the blame for that lies with the fact that Financial Oversight Authority has eliminated, in the beginning of the year, some discounts which it had granted in 2013, which has driven investors away. Recently, upon the market's pressure, the ASF has granted an additional six months of rebates for certain fees, so it remains to be seen whether Sobolewski's luck will change, especially since it is the ASF he will have to work with towards removing the eight barriers which he has determined, together with other market specialists, to be the factors that hinder the growth of the stock market.