www.business-review.eu Business Review | November 2021
32 INTERVIEW
Romanian entrepreneurs seize growth opportunities through BVB’s AeRO market AeRO, the small-cap growth market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), attracted 17 new companies this year, with more entrepreneurs and investors looking to tap the platform. BR sat down with BVB CEO Adrian Tanase to learn more about AeRO and understand how businesses can use it as a launchpad for listing on the main market. By Ovidiu Posirca In 2021 alone, 19 new companies have listed their shares, two of them on the main market, with EUR 60 million each, and 17 on our small-cap growth market, AeRO, with an average ticket size of roughly EUR 2 million. In addition, so far we’ve had 25 bond issuances on the stock exchange as well as nine government bonds, worth almost EUR 1.4 billion. This year’s evolution has once again proven the potential of our market in terms of attracting new companies, from different business sectors, as well as new retail investors.
How has the BVB’s AeRO platform performed during the pandemic economy and what are your plans for this market going forward? The BVB has been providing financing opportunities for startups and SMEs since 2010, through the Alternative Trading System (ATS). In 2019, the ATS became a Multilateral Trading System (MTS), based on the European Union’s MiFID requirements. This way, the BVB contributes to the development of the business environment and provides financing for companies' projects, including startups and SMEs, to support their growth. At the same time, the MTS brings in new opportunities for investors. Since the beginning of this year, the AeRO market has recorded more than 265,000
How are entrepreneurs, especially startup founders, perceiving the local capital market in terms of business opportunities?
development of their companies, offering op-
trades, an almost threefold increase over the
portunities which may be otherwise inacces-
previous year. The total value of trades on the
sible. There are also complementary results
AeRO market is close to RON 1 billion, which
In the last couple of years, we’ve seen a
that the local capital market has brought to
means an increase of 182 percent compared
change in entrepreneurs’ perception of the
entrepreneurs, including increased visibility
to 2020. The average daily trading value has
Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), as more
and a new approach to business, based on
reached RON 4.6 million. The AeRO mar-
and more of them are starting to view the
increased transparency and enhanced com-
ket has a capitalisation of RON 15.7 billion,
stock market as a source of financing for the
munication.
the largest figure since the launch of this
