WITHOUT THE BURDEN OF THE QUORUM The management of the BSE has invited the shareholders to consultations

Last night, the Board of Directors of the BSE had a semi-formal meeting with some of the shareholders of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, in which to find out how the shareholders about the hot topics of the day, such as the switch to the dual management system, the Central Counterparty or even Ludwik Sobolewski.

Besides, the BSE has announced since the end of July, that it would begin the process of formalized consultation of the shareholders of the company to establish the moment and the opportunity of the summoning of the General Shareholder Meeting (AGA), after SIF Moldova and two other small shareholders had asked for the shareholder meeting to be summoned, in order to discuss switching to the dual management system.

"The consultations concern, mostly, the main issues: the creation of the central counterparty, the passing of the Corporate Governance Code, the moment of the switching to the dual management system, the amendment of the provisions of the bylaws concerning the quorum requirements for the General Shareholder Meetings and the shared strategy with the operator of the energy market (OPCOM)", the communiqué of the BSE of July 26th was saying.

Last night, the management of the BSE had scheduled a meeting with the shareholders of the BSE at its headquarters, at 17:30.

According to some sources, the management of the BSE was supposed to make a presentation of the Central Counterparty project, which it had actually prepared for the last General Shareholder Meeting, which was not held because the quorum requirements were not met.

The Central Counterparty is an institution which is required on a European level for the settlement of derivatives. The project for the creation of a Romanian Central Counterparty, which would cost 7.5 million Euros, has failed, after the local exchange operators - BSE and Sibex - failed to get together enough shareholders to hold the General Shareholder Meetings which had the issue on the agenda.

Thus, the only alternative for the survival of the derivatives has remained resorting to a foreign institution. While Sibex seems to have turned to the Greeks, the BSE will have to decided whether it chooses a foreign Central counterparty or it abandons derivatives. The options that the management of the BSE is considering are Budapest, or Athens, in the event of a harmonization with Sibiu.

One of the topics of the day also the opportunity to summon the General Shareholder meeting for switching to the dual management system.

The directors of the BSE want to test the waters, because the Board of Directors will need, however, to give a formal answer to the request of the shareholders to summon the General Shareholder Meeting.

In this context, the issue of Ludwik Sobolewski, the Pole who has been nominated as the CEO of the BSE. A legitimate question is what will happen to Ludwik Sobolewski if the BSE summons the shareholders and they move to the dual management system?

The Pole recently had a meeting with the Romanian Financial Oversight Authority (ASF), but the official validation from the latter has yet to arrive.

"The case of Mr. Ludwik Sobolewski is being reviewed", the officials of the ASF told us, and they went on to say that once the review of the case is completed, the proposal to validate Sobolweski as CEO of the BSE will be submitted for approval to the Board of the ASF.

However, the Authority has not told us when it would announce its decision, meaning that, while waiting for the approval of the ASF, the situation at the top of the BSE could become complicated.