December 1 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian Stock Exchange [BUL:BSE], operator of the Sofia bourse, said that its consolidated net profit slightly decreased to 5.3 million levs ($2.8 million/2.7 million euro) in the first nine months of the year from 5.5 million levs a year ago, due to higher expenses.
The BSE's consolidated revenue grew to 13.3 million levs in the January-September period from 11.9 million levs in the comparable period of 2021, the company said in an interim financial statement earlier this week.
The group's revenue was positively impacted by a 13% annual growth in revenue from client contracts to 1.44 million levs, which was due to the consolidation of the results of BSE subsidiary Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX). Revenue from fees for bourse transactions jumped by 50% or by 275,000 levs.
Expenses widened to 7.4 million levs in the review period from 5.7 million levs in the nine months through September 2021, due to a 15% rise in expenses for salaries and higher costs for hired services, mostly made up of subscription, licence and consulting fees.
Turnover on the four market segments managed by the BSE jumped by 25% year-on-year in the quarter to end-September, reaching 177 million levs as the number of transactions increased 19.09% to 24,055. That increase stemmed from a 828% surge in deals on the BSE International segment and a 57% rise in transactions on the BEAM growth market.
In August, BSE announced a new partnership with US-based financial market data provider Refinitiv in environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics for the launch of a new index which will measure Bulgarian listed companies' sustainable performance.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)