In an attempt to provide investors with greater security, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), as well as company executives, representatives of supervisory institutions, government departments and NGOs, adopted a National Code of Corporate Management on October 9, in Sofia. The aims of the document are to ensure the protection of shareholders, transparency in the work of corporate management bodies and compliance with the interests of stakeholders. Compliance with the rules has been declared by the BSE, supervisory institutions and public companies, even though it is only recommended and does not have the power of law. “The code is a step forward in establishing modern rules and standards in the management of public companies in Bulgaria,” BSE CEO Bistra Ilkova told BTA news agency.
The code took one and a half year to write, said Ilkova. “It was a joint venture between business people, the BSE, the government and non-government organisations and academics. The final version was put together with assistance from foreign experts.”
The chairman of the Financial Supervision Commission, Apostol Apostolov, praised the merits of the code. He said that transparency and disclosure of information should not be limited to what the letter of the law required, most of all it should be connected with a stakeholders’ trust in the company.
Besides the news of the code, October 9 saw one of the most recent major deals on the BSE. A total of 120 637 shares, accounting for 36 per cent of the capital of electronics maker Elektronika, were sold at a mixed closed auction. The minimum overall price of the lot was set at 23 469 929 leva, which was equivalent to 194.55 leva a share. In the end, the winning bid was for this amount. Elana Trading was the investment intermediary on the deal. The new shareholder will be made public by October 16 at the latest, the BSE said. Elektronika’s stock depreciated by 17.4 per cent to 113.7 leva a share on October 8. On the same day, the BSE index BG40 extended its record streak in a consolidating market with low trading volumes. The BG40, tracking the 40 most liquid stocks on the BSE, gained 1.0 per cent to finish at a record 619.99 points, while the Sofix index of the 17 blue chips on the market was down 0.44 per cent to 1943.65 points.
In general, shares that decrease in value outnumbered those that increased by 98 to 63, with 19 stocks ending unchanged.
Heavyweights such as holding company Chimimport, mineral extractor Kaolin and drug maker Sopharma paced declines by blue-chips. Chimimport lost 4.68 per cent to 17.02 leva, Kaolin decreased 4.25 per cent to 19.34 leva and Sopharma slid 4.44 per cent to 8.6 leva. Fourteen of the blue chips ended lower and three rose on October 8.
BSE’s BG TotalReturn30 (BG TR30) index, in which companies with a free float of at least 10 per cent have equal weights, fell 0.58 per cent to 1212.27. The BG REIT index, which tracks the performance of real estate investment trusts traded on the stock exchange, rose 0.29 per cent to 104.67.
