September 26 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) has decided to adopt Deutsche Boerse’s trading platform, the BSE said.
“It is expected that the system will be put into operation in the second quarter of 2008,” it said in a statement sent to SeeNews on Wednesday.
BSE’s board of directors has chosen Deutsche Boerse’s platform over the one offered by Nordic exchange operator OMX.
The BSE opted for Deutsche Boerse’s platform because of the more favourable financial and technological parametres, BSE chairman Victor Papazov told SeeNews.
Using Deutsche Boerse’s trading platform, the BSE will be able to provide service of better quality and will be more visible to other stock exchanges, it said.
OMX and Deutsche Boerse have previously expressed interest in establishing strategic partnerships with the Sofia bourse, alongside Borsa Italiana, Vienna Stock Exchange, Athens Stock Exchange and Prague Stock Exchange.
One of the ways for to ensure BSE’s integration into the European capital market is the planned sale of the government’s 44% stake in the BSE. The Bulgarian government has said it plans to sell its stake in BSE to a strategic investor by the end of this year.
Papazov said earlier this week the adoption of a new trading platform, rather than the sale of the state stake in the BSE, would be a priority for the stock exchange in Sofia.
The Sofia stock exchange has recently attracted great interest by foreign investors who became more comfortable investing in Bulgaria after its entry in the European Union in January.