A significant milestone in Bulgaria's financial history was marked with the 20th anniversary of Investor.BG AD's initial public offering. The company began trading on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on October 4, 2004, following a successful IPO that raised over BGN 1 million through approximately 320,000 new shares. The investment intermediaries for this venture were Karoll and First Financial Brokerage House, led by Nikolay Martinov and Svetozar Abrashev. Investor.BG was co-founded by Lyubomir Lekov and Aleksi Andonov.
Since its inception, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange has witnessed 325 capital increase procedures, peaking between 2007 and 2008. Over the past two decades, there have been 290 share issues and 349 bond issues.
"We are celebrating a wonderful occasion! Investor.BG gave the capital market 20 years ago a boost, after which the Exchange experienced a prolonged period of growth," said Assoc. Prof. Manyu Moravenov, CEO of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE). He noted that today's environment is different, with fewer IPOs occurring globally.
Vasil Golemanski, CEO of the Central Depository and Deputy Chairman of the BSE Board of Directors, praised Investor.BG's team for their contribution to maintaining stability and trust in Bulgaria's capital market over the past two decades.
The event was attended by several notable figures including Nikolina Dimitrova from Bloomberg TV Bulgaria; Viktoria Mitkova from Investor Media Group; Georgi Biserinski also from Investor Media Group; Apostol Apostolov from the Central Depository; and Natalia Ilieva from the media group.
Vasil Velev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), emphasized BICA's commitment to supporting capital market development as one of Bulgaria's largest employers' organizations.
Photos of the event can be found at: https://shorturl.at/Hs2sT