The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) could decide to scrap the planned delisting from the regulated market of about 200 rarely-traded public companies that have more than 800 000 shareholders, sources familiar with the matter told Dnevnik.

At a meeting with the bourse operator last week, brokerages, pension and mutual funds managers, business groups and the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) said that they were against the proposal to strike off companies that register scarce trading volumes. One compromise on the table is delisting only the insolvent firms or those in the process of liquidation, which account for about 10 per cent of the low-liquidity companies up for delisting.

The BSE is due to make a final decision by November 10. The information was confirmed for Dnevnik by FSC chairperson Petar Chobanov, FSC deputy chairperson in charge of investment supervision Ralitsa Agayn and Nikola Abadjiev, chairperson of the Bulgarian Association of Supplementary Pension Insurance Companies.

Vassil Velev, chairperson of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, told Dnevnik that the delisting should at least be postponed because the current proposal could not be implemented.

In line with new stock trading rules, the stocks of more than 200 companies have to be delisted from the regulated market on January 1 2010 unless they meet the minimum liquidity requirement by the end of the year. Under the existing regulations, majority shareholders are not required to make a buyout offer, which could leave hundreds of thousands of shareholders with stock and little opportunity to get a fair price for it. The FSC is developing amendments to introduce a mandatory buyout bid for companies that will be delisted.

Source: Dnevnik