Bulgaria, Macedonia Bourses Agree to Exchange Trading Data

The building of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange in Sofia. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

The heads of the Bulgarian and Macedonian bourses signed on Monday an agreement on the exchange of stock market trading data in a bid to make them more attractive to foreign partners.

The agreement was signed on Monday in Sofia by Bulgarian Stock Exchange-Sofia Board of Directors Chairman Asen Yagodin and Macedonian Stock Exchange Chief Executive Office Ivan Steriev amid expectations that the bourse in Belgrade will join too soon.

The heads of the two bourses were unanimous that the Bulgarian and Macedonian stock exchanges are robust businesses even though they may look like dwarfs in comparison with major global players.

"The most important thing is that the stock exchanges in Bulgaria and Macedonia have one and the same strategic goal – to find an investor. The exchange of information will create a network of contacts, which will increase their appeal in the eyes of potential investors," Yagodin and Steriev said.

Asked about the link between Monday's agreement and the plans for Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia to merge stock exchanges to re-establish links and bolster their economies, Asen Yagodin declined to give a concrete answer, saying these bourses are at a very different stage of development.

Bulgaria's Finance Ministry raised earlier this month its share to 50%  plus one share from 44% in the country's stock exchange, which has been turned into a public company. The government bought 715,000 shares at BN 1 apiece.

A proposal to this effect was adopted at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on September 13.

It is expected that the listing of the Bulgarian exchange on its own platform will be a fact by the end of 2010.

Ivan Takev, the current executive director of the Bulgarian bourse, has explained that the government raised the state's stake in the Balkan country's stock exchange as it prepares to sell its majority to an industry investor and offer the rest to the public.

Bulgaria has discussed ways to sell its bourse stake over the past decade with Sweden's OMX AG and exchanges in Austria, Greece and Poland.

The founder and former CEO of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange has harshly criticized the government for increasing its share to just over 50%, saying it is effectively nationalizing the bourse at a knock-down price.

Victor Papazov claims that the Bulgarian Stock Exchange does not remotely require central government control as it is a robust business with excellent IT systems from Deutsche B?rse.

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