FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES
SEMI ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER 2008
BULGARIAN STOCK EXCHANGE
In 2007, the BSE registered a 90% increase
in its market capitalization.
Bistra Ilkova
CEO
The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) achieved
significant results in 2007 and there are good
reasons to believe that 2008 will also be
beneficial to all participants on the local capital
market. Last year we registered a 90%
increase in the market capitalization of our
exchange, which accounts for more than 50%
of the GDP. The turnover in 2007 went up
193%. Our official index SOFIX grew by 45% in
one year. The total amount of money that was
raised through the stock market–IPOs,
secondary listings, increase of capital and
bond issues–reached a record EUR 750
million.
Although we are very pleased with these
results, we see new challenges in front of us.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
The priorities for the BSE in 2008 will be to
attract new listings, increase the liquidity,
introduce new products and technological
innovations.
As a result of the BSE’s efforts to popularize the
stock market among as many local private
companies as possible, including the help
of road-shows and regional roundtable
discussions, about 60 medium and large sized
companies have publicly declared their
We have fixed our priorities for 2008 as to
increase the number of listings, to propose
new services and products and to introduce
technological innovations. As of today, 50-60
private companies have declared their
intention to finance their business projects
through the capital market. This proves that
the Bulgarian stock market has gained a lot of
popularity and is seen as a real alternative to
bank lending, which was not the case 2-3
years ago.
With Bulgaria’s entry into the European Union
on 1 January 2007 our Exchange is getting
more and more involved in the process of
integration and consolidation of the capital
markets in Europe. A major step
intention to raise capital and finance their future
projects through the Exchange. In 2007 we had
a record number of IPO’s and we expect next
year to reach even higher number.
Through the popularization of the stock market
we observe an increasing number of smaller
players investing on the stock market. We hope
that this trend will continue in 2008 with the aim
of increasing the liquidity. Thanks to our
COBOS online trading system the number of
individual investors that trade from their homes
have increased drastically.
in this direction was the signing of an
agreement between the BSE and Deutsche
Boerse, according to which our current trading
platform will be replaced by the German
system XETRA. This will give a lot more
opportunities to the Bulgarian investors and
brokers to gain access to the developed
European markets and vice-versa; foreign
investors will have a better chance to invest in
Bulgarian stocks.
In 2008, we will continue our efforts to develop
regional cooperation on a bilateral and
multilateral level. We believe FEAS plays a very
important role in this respect and has done a
lot for the promotion of our capital markets on
a global scale.
One of the major changes in the development
of the BSE in 2008 will be the connection to
Deutsche Boerse’s XETRA trading platform. The
aim is to start the system by June of next year.
This will bring new benefits for the local traders,
but will also give the foreign players access to
the Bulgarian capital market. It is expected that
the BSE’s partnership with Deutsche Boerse will
increase the visibility and the interest towards
our market.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Contact Name Mr. Panteley Karassimeonov
E-mail [email protected]
Website www.bse-sofia.bg
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