The shares of the Sofia Stock Exchange, in which the Bulgarian finance ministry is a majority holder, will be listed on January 6 in a bid to boost transparency and attract a strategic investor, the bourse said. The exchange will register for trade all of its 6,582,860 shares at a reference price of 1.0 lev per share. The low-liquidity Sofia bourse was hit by a prolonged recession and the market capitalisation of the listed companies more than halved to 11.1 billion levs ($7.45 billion) at the end of December from its level in the middle of 2008.
The finance ministry recently increased its controlling stake of 44 percent to 50.05 percent to rule out the risk of a hostile buyout after the planned listing. Other shareholders include brokerage firms and banks, with a combined 34.2 percent stake, and other institutional investors, which hold 7.3 percent but none of the shareholders alone have stakes of 5 or more percent in the bourse.
Last year, the centre-right government said it would seek an investor for its stake after attempts by previous cabinets to sell it failed despite declared interest from exchanges in western and eastern Europe. The Vienna Boerse has said it plans to continue its expansion in Eastern Europe, adding it was interested in the privatisation of the Sofia exchange.
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