Bucharest Stock Exchange partners with local IT industry association to draw more tech companies

The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) and the Employers’ Association of the Software and Services Industry (ANIS) signed a memorandum of understanding to promote the capital markets financing opportunities to the Romanian IT companies.

“The Bucharest Stock Exchange is the main financing channel for the Romanian entrepreneurs and our objective is to support the development of the local companies. The IT sector is essential for the Romanian economy and it had tremendous growth in the last years. We want a better representation of this sector on the stock exchange and to facilitate the access of our investors to companies with a technology background. The partnership with ANIS is a very meaningful step in this direction,” said BVB chairman Radu Hanga.

"The market’s evolution in the last years shows a very high level of interest from investors towards companies with high growth potential and, certainly, the IT sector is among the most attractive. We are positive that the partnership with ANIS will help us identify the entrepreneurs and the companies that can make good use of this available capital and contribute in this manner to the general development of the Romanian business environment,” added BVB CEO Adrian Tanase.

Several local tech companies have listed their shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in recent years, drawing high interest from local investors. The biggest is Bittnet Systems (BNET), which has reached a market capitalization of RON 169 mln (EUR 34 mln). Bittnet has used the capital market to raise funds through equity and bond sales and finance its expansion by taking over local and international IT firms. The group is currently the only IT company listed on the BVB’s main market and its shares were recently included in the FTSE Russell indices.

Life is Hard (LIH), another local IT company that is listed on the BVB’s AeRO market, recently announced plans to start a similar development strategy as Bittnet’s, based on takeovers financed through the capital market.

Two other IT companies – cybersecurity firm Safetech Innovations (SAFE) and mobile games developer Firebyte Games (FRB) - listed their shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange recently bringing significant gains to their early investors.