Dimitar Kostov, Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank: Capitals are being transferred from Greece to Bulgaria, not the reverse

Stock exchange experts: In addition to the listing of state shares in energy companies, a good idea is the offering of infrastructure projects

Автор: klassa.bg
Date: 9.3.2010
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Photo: BGNES

Ludmila Kuyumdzhieva

So far, the Greek crisis have not significantly impacted our country. Capitals are rather being transferred from Greece to Bulgaria, because our country offers a good level of financial stability, said Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Dimitar Kostov at a round table on the subject of "Capital Markets in Bulgaria– Perspectives After the Crisis”. The expert explained that the falling ratings of the Greek banks was not worrying, since when the index of the state itself was low, it impacted the assessment of the financial institutions.

BNB monitors all the banks constantly. There are no indications of something wrong happening in the system, pointed out Kostov. According to him, the subsidiaries of Greek banks in Bulgaria are not in poorer condition than the other credit institutions. They are even among the first half of the list, in terms of indicators.

With regard to the capital market development, the Chairman of the National Committee on Corporate Governance Rumen Radev suggested that the State should list minority stakes in energy companies, in order to boost up the stock exchange. According to him, the listing on the stock exchange of certain targeted infrastructure projects is another good idea. Financier Andrey Pramov countered the proposal for the listing of state stakes, saying that such a sale would not help the overall development of the stock exchange, but it would produce a momentary increase in the transactions. We need new companies rather than companies with transferred assets, said the expert.

"When speaking of the privatization of energy companies, we must firstly decide which companies are worth," said Kamen Kolchev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ELANA Financial Holding. He explained that energy transfer companies were suitable because they are large, and each of the share packages would cost more than BGN 100 mln.