Stock Exchange no longer representative for Romanian market
The Bucharest Stock Exchange debuted in 1995 with less than ten listed companies, but ended up bringing over 120 issuers to the stock exchange in three years' time. If one adds the over 5,500 companies on the RASDAQ market, the capital market had the most representatives players in the economy in 1998. Now there are 74 companies on the Stock Exchange and 1,300 on the RASDAQ, most of which are inactive.
The Romanian stock exchange went more or less in the opposite
direction to the Polish market, the main reference point in the
region, so the gap between the two markets deepened even further
instead of narrowing down.
The BSE and the RASDAQ market had a very large number of listed
companies from the very first few years, as a result of the mass
privatisation programme, but they did not manage to keep them on
board because of poor legislation. Many large companies, such as
Dacia, Terapia, Arctic (on the BSE), and Sidex, cement plants, beer
plants (on the RASDAQ market) were delisted shortly after being
taken over by foreign investors. Although Petrom, BRD, Transgaz and
the SIFs (Financial Investment Companies) have joined the Stock
Exchange in the meantime, the Romanian capital market can no longer
be considered representative for the Romanian economy.
"The last 15 years have meant building a solid base for the
Bucharest Stock Exchange. Unfortunately, not much has been built on
top of this foundation," says Valentin Ionescu, the current general
manager of the BSE.