The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) has scheduled for September 23 a general meeting of shareholders to sort out the mandate of its current board of directors.

The terms of two directors on the four-member board, Bistra Ilkova and Viktor Papazov, expired in early 2007 while those of the other half of the board, Lyudmila Elkova and Todor Breshkov, expired in early 2008.

The general meeting is called a week after a Dnevnik story revealed irregularities in the board's mandate entry in the commercial register.

It came to light that the board was registered for a new five-year mandate through 2012 without the mandatory prior sanction from shareholders.

The bourse management blamed the controversy on the online form provided by the Registry Agency which they claimed lacked clarity.

It was announced last week that the financial regulator is also investigating the registration snafu.

In late June this year, the association of investment intermediaries demanded the sacking of the bourse management. The subsequent general meeting of shareholders rejected the proposal but failed to do anything about the mandate of the board which had already expired back then.

Board members with expired terms are allowed to stay on until officially removed by the general meeting of shareholders.

The vote on the fate of the board at the upcoming meeting could go either way.

The Finance Ministry, a 44 per cent shareholder in BSE, declined to comment on July 25.

At the last meeting of shareholders, the Finance Ministry backed the incumbent management of the bourse.
(Dnevnik)