RASDAQ becomes joint stock company

The brokerage firms in Romania at the end of last week endorsed the transformation of RASDAQ from a limited liability company into a joint stock firm. The brokers also agreed to start taking steps to have the trading systems of the Stock Exchange and of RASDAQ integrated over the next few years.
The brokerage companies (more than 70) control both RASDAQ through shares and the Stock Exchange, which operates as an association of securities firms.
Turning RASDAQ into a joint stock company was required by the new capital market legislation enacted in April last year. RASDAQ used to be 100% held by the National Association of Securities Firms (ANSVM), that is brokers, albeit indirectly, until Friday.
The deadline set by the law was not met so that RASDAQ was operating illegally, as explained by the chairperson of the National Securities Commission (CNVM), Gabriela Anghelache. She added CNVM could have decided to suspend RASDAQ, but this would have been a rash decision, because it would have affected the over 4,000 companies listed and the investors alike.
As of Friday, RASDAQ has 730 million ROL in share capital and 73 shareholders, which hold equal stakes. The stockholders are the 72 brokerage firms and ANSVM.
RASDAQ’s management will be secured by a Board of Directors run by Cristian Siminel Andrei, ANSVM chairman and manager of the American investment fund Broadhurst.
RASDAQ was turned into a joint stock company in order to make its administration more fluid, which is but one of the steps taken to improve RASDAQ’s image.