TAKEV, CEO OF THE BULGARIAN STOCK EXCHANGE:  The BSE has expressed its intent to participate in the privatization of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange

• The sale of the stake owned by the state to a strategic investor, the event of the year on the Bulgarian stock market

The ambition of the Bucharest Stock Exchange to participate in the privatization of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange operator was expressed by Mr. Valentin Ionescu (ed. note: the CEO of the BSE), in an economic forum in Sofia, in May, said Ivan Takev, Chief Executive Officer of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, in an interview.

"Still, there were never negotiations at a management level between the two exchanges concerning the future sale of the stake owned by the Bulgarian state in the country"s Stock Exchange", Mr. Takev said, who added that the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance, which owns 50.05% of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, will perform the procedures and will negotiate with any potentially interested parties.

Valentin Ionescu, the CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, said: "We want to sign a memorandum of collaboration with this institution (ed. note: the Bulgarian Stock Exchange) and I hope this will happen very soon, as its signing is one of the important conditions for the development of our future projects". Mr. Ionescu did not mention whether the BSE is still negotiating for the acquisition of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, but he did say: "The strategy of the Bucharest Stock Exchange also includes projects to acquire stakes in other exchange operators. For that purpose it has initiated various talks and meetings on the subject".

He added that the Bucharest Stock Exchange will soon notify investors and the public of relevant information, in compliance with its listed company status, once the results achieved will have a certain degree of relevance.

From the point of view of the director of Sofia, the most significant event of the year for the market operator was its conversion into a listed company. "In the coming months, the most important event will be the privatization of 33% of the states state"s 33% in each of the state"s electricity distribution companies - E.ON, CEZ and EVN - through the stock exchange, and next year, of course, we will have the sale of the stake which the state owns in the Stock Exchange, to a foreign strategic investor or to an alliance of stock exchanges", said Ivan Takev.

• Very intensive contacts between the two exchanges

The Bulgarian Stock Exchange and the Bucharest Stock Exchange had productive relations over the last 15 years, on an institutional and personal level, Mr. Takev said: "The contacts were very intensive and we consulted on a comprehensive range of problems concerning the development of the capital markets in our two countries. We regularly exchange information concerning trading operations, market segmentation, corporate governance and regulation problems".

For a while now, there have been talks on connecting the Central Depositories, according to the director of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, but it will be up to those institutions to take the necessary steps. He told us that in July, there was a meeting in Bucharest between the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and the two depositories. "The purpose of the meeting was to elaborate the steps in the coming months to create a more attractive environment for investors and issuers on the Bulgarian and Romanian stock markets".

In order to facilitate double listings, the two depositories have expressed their intention to create a direct connection, the official of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange said.

Valentin Ionescu said that the-discussions concerning a potential double listing are still on hold until the connection of the Central Depository of Bucharest to the one in Sofia.

• Discussions for the creation of a common index

During their meeting in the summer, the representatives of the two exchanges have also discussed the creation of a common index of the most performing companies on the two markets, according to Mr. Takev, who said that the Bulgarian Exchange has made the commitment to work on the methodology of the new index.

At the end of September, the Bulgarian Exchange had a capitalization of 6.17 billion Euros, according to the statistic of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges.

Over time, the exchanges of Warsaw and OMX expressed interest in acquiring stakes in the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, but they did not yield any concrete results.