Bulgaria To Allow Only Top Bourse Operators to Bid for Sofia Stock Exchange
Leading global stock exchange operators only will be allowed to participate in the privatisation of a majority stake in the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and the local Central Depository aimed to boost the efficiency of the local capital market, the Sofia bourse said.
The finance ministry notified the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) that it authorised the country's privatisation agency to prepare the sale procedure for a 50.05% stake in the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) and a 43.7% stake in the Central Depository to a single strategic investor, the bourse said in a statement published on its website. BSE owns a further 6.61% stake in the Central Depository.
Candidate buyers are required to have had at least 2.0 billion euro ($2.61 billion) average monthly turnover in the spot equity market and/or have concluded at least 20 million derivative contracts a month on the average over the last two years, as only transactions executed through electronic trading platforms will be taken into account, the BSE said.
Bulgaria will also select an adviser on the sale, as the candidates have to be among the leading advisers on mergers and acquisitions in Central and Eastern Europe, excluding Russia and the former Soviet republics, between 2005-2010.