Teodor Ancuţa, Sibex: The winners of the Sibex elections were the FICs and brokerage firm HTI

• The most important objective of Sibex remains the listing of "Romgaz"

Reporter: Mr. Chairman, how would you describe the general shareholder meeting that was held this week (ed. note: last week)?

Teodor Ancuţa: It was tough, given the items on the agenda, of which the most important was the proposal to revoke the Board of Directors and to appoint a new one.

The proposal in question came as a surprise for me at first, given that this year, Sibex had major accomplishments, such as the launch of the spot market, the listing of the company on its own market, the implementation of new successful products such as the gold and Dow Jones derivatives denominated in lei, the listing of Prodplast Imobiliare, on the Alternative Trading System of Sibex, which thus became the first functional ATS in Romania. We have also implemented a new trading platform. Given that this was a proposal coming from important shareholders, it needed to be discussed, because the Sibiu Exchange has always valued the opinions of its shareholders. What"s more, after the listing, major changes in the shareholder structure occurred, and we came to the conclusion that those changes needed to be reflected in the structure of the Board of Directors. Therefore, the old board was revoked with over 80% of the votes in favor, and a new board was appointed for the remainder of the mandate, whose members you have already published. Out of the old council, two members were reelected, namely Mr. Anton Ionescu, the chairman of SSIF Broker Cluj, and myself. The winners of the elections were the financial investment companies, SIF3 and SIF4 which have one seat on the Board of Directors each, as well as brokerage firm HTI that won a seat. The fact that the shareholders have reelected me as chairman proves that I have always acted in good faith, fairly and transparently, for the benefit of the company. Furthermore, in spite of the rumors that have circulated in the mass-media, that this proposal was intended to replace me as chairman, I was never concerned this might actually happen. There was speculation concerning the chances of some of the candidates that were considered favorites, but we did not comment, we waited for the general shareholder meeting to take place, and the shareholders have decided. It was proven that the rumors were unfounded and that their only goal was to pressure the shareholders.

Teodor Ancuţa: Everything is in the past now and there is nothing more to say. As to what concerns the other decisions of the General Extraordinary and Ordinary Shareholder Meetings were simply administrative matters concerning fees and commissions, internal regulation changes as well as the approval of the new logo and of the new name of the company - S.C. SIBEX - SIBIU STOCK EXCHANGE SA.

Reporter: What are your objectives for the new mandate?

Teodor Ancuţa: I wish that, during the remainder of my mandate, me and the other members of the board of Directors succeed in developing the spot market of Sibex, since it is crucial for the company. It is important to find companies that would join the stock market, and convince them that the stock market is the best alternative to secure funding. But in order for the private sector to have confidence in the capital market the state needs to set up an example and list the major companies in which it is a shareholder. In this respect, the most important objective of Sibex is the listing of ROMGAZ, as I have already said on other occasions. I think that by doing that, the Government would give this market a chance to grow, by bringing in the credibility that we need to stimulate Romanian businessmen to get their companies on the stock market. For us, this listing is a huge opportunity to continue our ascension. Regardless of whether we will perform the listing of ROMGAZ by ourselves, or whether it will receive a dual listing in Sibiu and Warsaw, I think that if it went through, this would lead to the creation of 10,000 new accounts, and it would set the foundation of a different image for the capital market.

Also, another one of our major objectives is to the liquidity on the derivatives segment to the levels it was at in the previous years, as the financial crisis has led to a drop in volumes. In this respect we are also considering launching new derivatives, as well as stepping up our educational and marketing efforts. I think that the main problem that we are facing is the fact that Romanians lack investment culture and this is something that we want to change.

Reporter: Do you still stand by your decision to resign if ROMGAZ won"t be listed on Sibex?

Teodor Ancuţa: As I have already stated for your newspaper, the listing of ROMGAZ is very important for me and for the company alike. We will try to bring this project to completion and we await the concrete results of our approaches. In a previous interview, I have mentioned the exact steps that we have taken. A new factor has been introduced since then, meaning that after we have requested that the government amend its decision to list ROMGAZ by holding a call for tenders for selecting the Stock Exchange on which the company would get listed, and after the government refused to do so, we filed a lawsuit requesting the voiding of the Government Decree by which the listing of ROMGAZ was decided. More to the point, we have taken legal action against the Romanian government, which was registered with the Eighth Section of the Court of Appeal of Bucharest. We will allow the lawsuit to follow its course, and once we have a clear ruling, we will see what can be done. I strongly believe in the success of this project. I"ve said that if I fail I will step down and I stand by this point of view.

Reporter: Are you concerned with the fact that you have some shareholders that are unhappy with the performance of the Board of Directors?

Teodor Ancuţa: Yes, of course I am concerned with this fact. In fact, the Board of Directors represents all the shareholders, regardless of whether they voted for the board in question or not. We rely on dialog, and if there are causes for discontent, we are looking for the best solutions for them. It is a democratic exercise. Most of the shareholders have confidence in the new Board of Directors- it is something that is clearly demonstrated by the results of the vote. Just like the previous board acted based on the mandate bestowed upon them by the shareholders, and I think that it did a good job, given the achievements that I have mentioned in the beginning.

Reporter: Will Cristian Sima still be involved in the management of Sibex (offering new products - options based on the Dow Jones index)?

Teodor Ancuţa: Mr. Cristian Sima, through his company WBS Romania, is one of the significant shareholders of Sibex and I think that his interest, as a businessman, is to have the Sibiu Exchange develop, even though he lost his seat on the Board of Directors. Any shareholder can come forward with constructive proposals concerning new products or ancillary development methods. We will continue working on our earlier projects and we will launch new ones. Time will tell if Mr. Sima will want to continue supporting us or not.