Bucharest Stock Exchange Organized A Conference At The European Parliament Dedicated To SMEs Financing, Presenting The AeRO Market

On May 6, Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), in cooperation with Member of the European Parliament Theodor Stolojan, held conference ‘Bucharest – new destination for financing European growth stories’ at the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium.

The conference was organized by BVB in order to shed light on how Romanian capital market can provide access to finance to SMEs and start-ups, not only the local ones but also those spread across Europe. BVB was represented by CEO Ludwik Sobolewski who presented and discussed AeRO, BVB’s equities segment for SMEs and startups.

“AeRO is considered as something that should have international, not only local dimension. Main messages that I would like to address is that this market should be seen in a Central Eastern European context. I think this is something of a great interest as it shows that CEE is now considerably richer when it comes to opportunities offered to investors. I think this is the future of this sub region of Europe, which is still undoubtedly quite small when it comes to capital flows if we compare it to the Western part of Europe. This is a new, positive tendency that we now have two markets in the region – Poland and Romania, emerging at a very fast pace. Romanian capital market is still one of smaller in Europe but I would risk a statement that it is the fastest evolving market in the European Union and this is a big chance for us and we will not waste this opportunity”, said Ludwik Sobolewski during his address.

The event has attracted over 50 distinguished guests, including His Excellency Stefan Tinca, Romanian Ambassador to Brussels, CEOs of two AeRO Authorized Advisor companies, representatives from the financial and capital markets oriented associations as well as significant number of Romanian professionals, currently based in Brussels.

The speakers panel consisted of: Markus Ferber, Member of the European Parliament, Gerhard Huemer, Director Economic Policy at the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Isidro Laso, Head of Sector, Startup Europe at the European Commission, Mamta Murthi, Country Director for Central Europe and the Baltic Countries at The World Bank, Raluca Painter, European Commission DG Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, Rainer Riess, Director General of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges, Pawel Sliwinski, CEO at INC SA, AeRO Authorized Advisor and CEO at Carpathia Capital, an AeRO listed company, Ludwik Sobolewski, CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange as well as Theodor Stolojan, Member of the European Parliament who has also hosted and chaired the session.

Today, May 7^th, BVB CEO Ludwik Sobolewski will deliver a speech at the European Business Angels Network 2015 Angel Summit taking place in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, during a panel dedicated to accessing finance through stock exchanges.