Romania promoted to secondary Emerging Market status
The Bucharest Stock Exchange has been promoted to Emerging Market from Frontier Market status.
Leyla Cheamil, 27.09.2019, 13:50
Global index provider FTSE Russell promoted Romania to Emerging Market from Frontier Market status, as announced on September 26, 3 years after the country was added to the Watch List. The reclassification of the status will become effective in September next year. This new status allows funds much larger than the ones that have invested so far in Romania and that manage hundreds of billions of Euros to invest here in the next years. More than 80 companies are listed at the Bucharest Stock Exchange on the main market and as many as 290 companies on the AeRo, the alternative trading system.
Adrian Tănase, the CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, said on the occasion that “we are witnessing a historical moment: it’s the international recognition that Romanian deserves to be promoted.” He went on to say that this status is the recognition of the progress made by the local capital market, being a critical moment for future development. “When the stock market is doing well the economy is doing well. I do hope this status upgrade will make more managers from state-owned and privately held companies see the stock exchange as the go-to place where they can further develop their businesses” Adrian Tănase added.
In turn, Lucian Anghel, the president of the Bucharest Stock Exchange Board said that Romania’s promotion to the Emerging Market status can be considered, from the economic standpoint of the capital market, the equivalent of the country’s admission to the European Union.
The minister of Communications and Information Technology Alexandru Petrescu wrote on his Facebook page that a new market status means new opportunities for investment. He pointed out that the Emerging Market status for the Bucharest Stock Exchange is confirmed by a capitalization of the listed companies exceeding 170 billion lei, 14% higher as compared to the value reported at the end of 2018, as well as by a BET index whose value comes 2nd in the EU.
According to the communications minister, economic performance and sustainable development have been the pillars of Romania’s development in the past years, representing a solid platform of stability, investment opportunities and efficiency prospects that encourage the development of top stock exchanges with a high level of liquidity. He added that through the capacity of stock exchanges to mobilize financial resources, to boost the access of SMEs to funding and to consolidate corporate governance and business practices to the benefit of companies, investors and consumers, in correlation with the benefits of the single market and the free circulation of capital, Romania’s economy will accelerate its growth and the volume of investments in essential infrastructure will grow. (translation by L. Simion)
