Lucian Anghel wants to change the BSE from a "boat" into a "cruiser"

Lucian Anghel, the candidate proposed by BCR for the presidency of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, wants to take the market operator "to the next level" and to turn it from "a boat" into "a cruiser".

"The first goal, and the most important is maximizing the value of the stock of the BSE", Lucian Anghel chief-economist of BCR said yesterday.

Another goal would be to successfully complete the public offerings which the state will launch next year, and, after that, bringing private companies on the Stock Exchange. "We need to start investing now, in order to allow companies to finance themselves through the BSE", the candidate proposed by BCR said.

According to him, at this moment, the Bucharest Stock Exchange has the unique opportunity to become a financing instrument.

If he wins the election, which are scheduled for January 9th, 2012, Lucian Anghel together with his team wants to bring as many foreign investors as possible into the market, to review and eliminate the barriers to enter the market, as well as having the Bucharest Stock Exchange be more active and help domestic companies become more visible.

"We need to bolster our communication with institutions, with the Romanian National Securities Commission, the Government, the IMF, the European Commission and the NBR)", Lucian Anghel said, and he added: "As we will see results, IPOs, the Exchange will be able to move to the next level, to being a partner in any important economic decisions".

Concerning the electoral campaign before the General Shareholder Meeting, Lucian Anghel said: "We are all in the same boat and we shouldn't be fighting over who gets the left row and who gets the right row. We need to turn the boat into a cruiser".

The shareholders of the BSE are meeting on January 9th, in order to decide on the revocation of the current Board of Directors and, potentially electing another one, at the request of a group of shareholders which together hold 9.41%.

The list of candidates for the position of chairman of the BSE includes the current president, Stere Farmache, Lucian Anghel, chief-economist of BCR, and the president of the Association of Brokers, Dan Paul. There are 19 candidates for eight seats on the Board of Directors and 3 candidates for the position of CEO of the Exchange. The group which requested the replacement of the management of the BSE consists of two funds controlled by ING, BCR, Erste and UniCredit CAIB Securities, and brokerage firm Intercapital with its iFond fund.