Sources: "It is very likely that Radu Hanga will remain the president of BVB"

The shareholders of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) will give Radu Hanga another mandate as president, in today's elections, according to sources in the market.

The current leader of the board of our capital market operator would have the support of the group formed by Banca Transilvania, Evergent and Transilvania Investments, but also the group coordinated by Lion Capital (formerly SIF Banat-Crişana), which has no candidate for the position of president, according to sources.

Even the administrators of private pension funds have not designated a candidate for the head of the BVB and, based on the experience of the elections four years ago, when Hanga won with almost 70% of the quorum, we can assume that this time also a good part of the votes controlled by funds will go to the current BVB president.

Under these conditions, Dragoş Neacşu, the other candidate for the head of our exchange, has very little chance of winning the chair of the president of our capital market operator.

The data we have managed to centralize shows that the BT, Ever, Transilvania Investments group holds about 14% of BVB, but they probably have a greater voting power. It is possible that the bank directly owns BVB shares (in the bank's reports it is only mentioned that the group owns shares listed on BVB), to which can be added shares held through funds that are not managed by BT Asset Management.

In the case of the group coordinated by Lion Capital, which also includes SIF Muntenia, Infinity Capital Investments and Swiss Capital, the holding identified by us is around 18%, but taking into account the practice of placing money in funds that they control and who, in turn, have BVB shares, it is possible that the holding is greater. Pillar II pension funds had, at the end of September, 20.5% of BVB, while Pillar III funds held about 1.3% of our capital market operator.

• Sixteen candidates for nine seats on the BVB board

Seventeen candidates initially registered for the nine seats on the Bucharest Stock Exchange Board, which now remain sixteen, according to the latest information on the BVB website.

Apart from Radu Hanga, the group coordinated by BT proposed Daniela Secară (proposed by the BT Maxim fund), Şerban Marin (proposed by Evergent) and Remus Vulpescu (proposed by Transilvania Investments). Nicu Buică, the director of SAI Muntenia Invest and Robert Cosmin Pană, one of the current vice-presidents of the BVB, who comes from Swiss Capital and SIF Muntenia, were registered from the Lion Capital group. Meanwhile, Nicu Buică withdrew his candidacy.

The shareholding of the Bucharest Stock Exchange also includes banks, mutual investment funds and brokerage houses.

The candidates registered by BCR are Cristian Pascu - deputy executive general director and Valerian Ionescu - Head of Product Management Investments Products of the bank. Another candidate for a place in the Council of the exchange is Claudia Ionescu, who comes from BRD.

Dan Paul, president of the Association of Brokers and one of the current vice-presidents of BVB, is running from the brokerage area. Also, Octavian Molnăr from IFB Finwest is another candidate for the position of administrator of the stock exchange.

Răzvan Rat is the deputy general director of BRK, but the company is not a member of the Brokers Association, and in the past it acted in concert with the former SIF Banat-Crişana and SIF Muntenia.

Other aspirants for the position of member of the BVB Council are: Laviniu Beze, president of the Association of Capital Market Investors (proposed by Ioan Gheorghiu, deputy manager at Amundi Asset Management); Loredana Chitu, partner, coordinator of the capital markets practice at Dentons (proposed by OTP Asset Management); Simona Fătu, governance and ESG consultant (proposed by Narcisa Oprea, partner of Schoenherr Attorneys at Law); Vlad Deliu, financial director at Softbinator Technologies (proposed by former broker Mihai Chişu).

Currently, the BVB Council is composed of the president Radu Hanga, the vice-presidents Dan Paul and Robert-Cosmin Pană and the members: Claudia Ionescu, Mihaela Bîciu, Octavian Molnăr, Dragoş Neacşu, Răzvan Rat and Ştefan Szitas.

The members of the Council of the new Council will be elected by the method of cumulative voting, for a four-year term, which will start from January-February next year.