(C) Corporate Governance Code - first aniversary in Bulgaria

Happy anniversary to all our colleagues who have actively devoted their time to the successful implementation of the Corporate Governance Code (CGC) in Bulgaria.

This very firs step of implementation that has been made is of enormous importance for the Bulgarian capital market. We have had first annual reports, shareholders’ meetings and press-releases in certain companies that yield positive flavor of the CGC. The investors do highly appreciate the transparency of the public companies and most often pays premium to buy or hold their shares.

Unfortunately, we do often see public companies that have endorsed the CGC, but lag a bid deal behind its requirements such as: lacking projections, practical role of the independent directors, linkage of the corporate results with the managements’ remuneration and publishing of adequate analysis of the company’s financials and perspectives.

A further dent is being open by the reluctance of some investors’ relations managers (IRMs) to reveal enough public information to shareholders and potential ones. Quite often there will be missing current information of dividends distribution, sometimes of the IRMs themselves.

My expectations are that the current edition of the CGC is just the very first step to the implementation of the OECD Good Practices of Corporate Governance. I hope that the market situation will soon let us really add premium to those companies whose corporate governance is worth doing so. This step will foster the practical implementation of the CGC.